


I Will Make Another World For Us...

by Luminous_Being



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark Rey (Star Wars), Dark Reylo, Dark Side Rey, Devoted Reylo, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Not Canon Compliant - Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rey needs a teacher, Rey says yes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 11:49:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 28,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21337759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luminous_Being/pseuds/Luminous_Being
Summary: Tired of Luke Skywalker's claims that the Jedi need to end and feeling more connected to Kylo Ren in the wake of her descent into the cave on Ahch-To, Rey flees Skywalker's planet to meet up with Kylo Ren so he can teach her the ways of the Force.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 22
Kudos: 150





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
This idea has been bouncing around in my head for a while and I thought I should finally write down all of the fanfic ideas that I have had since 2015 but have been too nervous to finish. This is basically a "what if Luke never caught Rey and Ben touching hands and she goes to meet with him without confronting Luke" scenario. I have wanted to write a variation on the "Rey Says Yes" story since TLJ came out and figured now was a good time to do it as the saga is coming to an end in a month or so. I don't really have a set timeline for how long this will take me. This is my first published fanfiction and I don't have the whole thing written yet. But, I will try to do as much as I can while juggling school and life.  
I'm trying to do NaNoWriMo for the first time and I am having tons of fun!

She’s backed against the edge of the cliff left behind by the oscillator blowing cracks in the planet’s surface. The blue lightsaber she had found at Maz’s castle, pulses in her hand as she pushes against the spitting red of Kylo Ren’s crossguard lightsaber.  
  
“You need a _teacher_,” he growls, “I can show you the ways of the Force!”__  
  
“The Force?”  
  
She shuts her eyes and suddenly she can see it, in the back of her mind, something that has always been there. She pushes against it and then she knows what to do. Pushing back at Ren with renewed strength, they dance along the frozen and snow-covered ground. She swings the lightsaber around and around, hacking at the man who killed Han Solo. Their arms are locked together, each of them holding onto the other’s lightsaber in addition to their own. Rey gets the upper hand and with one final flick of her wrist, Kylo Ren is brought to the ground with a gaping red slash across his face and down his neck.  
  
The earth splits open between them and Rey turns and runs back to Finn’s unconscious form. As she falls to her knees beside him, the bright light of the _Falcon_ falls over her. Chewie helps her get Finn onto the ship and they fly off to D’Qar and the victorious Resistance.__  
  
***  
  
The rough stone steps on Ahch-To are steep. As Rey reaches the grassy hill at the top, she spots a short figure facing out toward the waves with their head and body covered in a rough, brown cloak. The figure turns and Rey knows that this is Luke Skywalker, famed Jedi Master. She holds out her lightsaber, _his_ lightsaber, and waits. A metal cybernetic hand reaches out to grasp the hilt and Skywalker considers it for a moment before tossing the lightsaber over his shoulder and stomping away. Confused, Rey follows after him to a little cluster of stone huts. The clanging of metal on stone alerts her to where the old man has gone and she knocks on the door, begging him to open up. Giving up, Rey walks down to _Falcon_ to get Chewie. If anyone could get the door open, he could. After knocking down Skywalker’s door and discussing Han, Rey explains why they need Luke Skywalker to help the Resistance defeat the sinister First Order.____  
  
When it becomes clear to Rey that Skywalker won’t be any help, she decides to do what she does best: wait. She waits and she waits. Days pass and then she is suddenly awoken at night to Luke standing over her telling her they start the next day at dawn.  
  
“Three lessons,” the old man grumbles as he walks away from her. “I will teach you the ways of the Jedi and why they need to end.” And with that, he shuts the door to his hut.


	2. Vision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Kylo Ren connect after Rey goes to the mirror cave and doesn't get the answers she wanted. Then, a vision prompts Rey to make a decision about her place in the galaxy.

The cave is dark and Rey’s wet clothes cling to her body in a way she is unaccustomed to, having lived in the arid Jakku desert for as long as she can remember. She notices the mirrored wall in front of her and steps forward knowing it will give her the answers she craves. She reaches out and presses a wet finger to the cold plane of the wall. A thousand Reys greet her and the line stretches on. When she finds the end and pleads for her parents, she is left only with her reflection in the glass and intense loneliness unlike she has ever felt before. At least on Jakku, she had hope that she wasn’t alone and that her parents were out there somewhere looking for her.  
  
Climbing out of the cave, she runs back to the little hut she has claimed for her own. As she sits wrapped in a blanket, she feels the now-familiar whooshing in her ears that signifies the connection between her and Kylo Ren. When she sees him materialize in front of her, she breathes out a sigh of relief. He is here, he will know how to help her make sense of what the Force was telling her. He wasn’t afraid of the darkness in her like his uncle was. His brows furrow at the expression on her face and he makes to sit down across from her.  
  
“What’s wrong?” the gentleness in his tone surprised her.  
  
Rey tells him about the aftermath of their third connection where he was shirtless in his chambers. How she went to the cave to find answers about her parents after he told her to let the past die. How the water was so cold and how the line of Reys went on seemingly forever. How at the end, when she was left only with her own reflection and the crushing weight of her loneliness.  
  
“I thought I’d find answers here. I was wrong.” She ducks her head more and her eyes are lowered to the ground, “I’d never felt so alone.”  
  
“You’re not alone” he promises her, eyes focused solely on her.  
  
“Neither are you. It’s not too late.”  
  
Hesitantly, she moves her hand out from under the blanket and reaches toward him, not knowing if this would work, if their strange connection through the Force would allow them to touch across systems. He removes his leather glove and reaches out as well. His fingers press against hers and the vision pops into her head as it had done those weeks ago at Maz’s castle when she first touched her lightsaber. A vision of them back to back in a blood-red room in what looked like the interior of a vast throne room. She can hear the sound of lightsabers and feel the press of his back beneath hers. The vision shifts and she’s standing on what she thinks is the bridge of a star destroyer. Her dress is black and he is standing next to her dressed in the same rich, dark tone. They stare out the viewport and as the vision starts to fade, Rey hears the figure of Kylo vow to give her the stars.  
  
When she comes back to herself, Kylo is staring at her intently. His eyebrows are raised slightly and the look in his eyes tells her that he saw something too. Before she can ask what he saw, he disappears. The Force connection broke.  
  
***  
  
When Rey has recovered a bit from the emotional upheaval of being in the cave and then touching hands with Kylo, she starts to analyze her vision. She wants to know what Kylo saw but can’t seem to get the Force bond to snap back into place. She sits on her bedroll and fiddles with her lightsaber. Thinking back to when she first wielded it, how it felt when she closed her eyes and took from Kylo Ren’s mind how to fight him. She thinks about Luke’s hesitance to teach her and how afraid he got when she sought out the power of the cave. Luke hasn’t taught her anything she did not already know from taking the information from Kylo’s mind that night in the snow on Starkiller Base. How can she hope to become stronger and understand the Force if Master Skywalker refuses to teach her anything she can use in a fight? Standing up, Rey reaches for the small bag she brought and the handful of possessions she owns. She closes her eyes and tries to find in her mind that thread of another’s consciousness that she tugged on when fighting on Starkiller Base. In her mind, she finds a reddish string that she somehow knows is what links her to Kylo Ren. She grabs onto it and hurdles into his mind.  
  
“Yes,” she says, hoping he can understand her.  
  
“Yes, what?”  
  
“I need a teacher. You once said you could show me the ways of the Force. I’m saying yes. I’m saying that I’m going to come to you. Skywalker can give me nothing.”  
She waits for his response when suddenly her mind is filled with a set of coordinates and she knows immediately what she is going to do.


	3. Unification

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey finally reunites with Kylo Ren and they fly away together to begin training.

Making the decision to abandon Luke and his teachings is easier than she thought. Once Chewie understood what she had done, he helped her slip off the island unnoticed. Rey didn’t want to put Chewie in a difficult position by asking him to deliver her to his best friend’s murderer, so she asked to be dropped at the nearest spaceport and got a small ship of her own that would take her to Kylo Ren. After finding a suitable ship, she returned to Chewie and thanked him. The Wookie pulled her into a bone-crushing hug and warned her to be careful.  
  
“I will, Chewie, please don’t worry about me. And tell Leia, tell her that I’m sorry and that I’m going to be okay. Maybe I can stop this if I go to him.”  
  
Chewie growled back at her and she shook her head quickly.  
  
“No! Don’t tell Finn if he wakes up, I don’t want him to be angry with me. Thank you, Chewie, for everything.”  
  
She climbed into her ship and sat down. Plugging in the coordinates, she flew off. It was only a short jump to lightspeed and then she appeared in front of a familiar planet of green and blue. Flying low to the surface of Takodana, she lands her borrowed ship on a small strip of land. Ahead of her is a large _Upsilon_-class command shuttle. The ramp of the other ship drops down and the figure of Kylo Ren stalks down to the dirt and moss-covered forest floor. Rey climbs out of her ship and lands with a soft thud onto the earth below her. She cautiously walks forward until she is a couple of paces from him. __  
  
“Why did you tell me to come here? I would’ve thought you would send me right to your star destroyer.”  
  
“Don’t you remember?” his voice soft and almost wistful. “This is where we first met.”  
  
Rey looks around and she can remember the feeling of fear she had when he froze her in place. She remembers shooting at him and him blocking her shots without sending them back to hurt her. She looks at him for a beat and then opens her mouth to speak.  
  
“Where’s your helmet? We’re on a populated planet full of people who probably don’t like you. I would’ve thought you would have it on.”  
  
There is a pause while he stares at her.  
  
“I destroyed it.”  
  
Rey waits for more of an explanation but he seems to be done with her line of questioning. He nods once and then turns to walk back onto his ship. As he gets to the top of the ramp, he stops and turns.  
  
“Are you coming?”  
  
Rey nods and quickly follows him up the ramp and into his ship. The inside is all clean edges and black with some red accents. She sits next to him in the co-pilot’s seat while he readies the shuttle for liftoff. She looks at the panels in front of her, wondering if she should be helping him pilot.  
  
As if he heard her thoughts, he says, “Can you flip that switch by your elbow? We need to cloak the ship while we ready for the jump to lightspeed.”  
  
She turns and sees a small red switch. She flicks it up and then settles back into the large seat. Watching him plug a set of coordinates into the navigational computer, Rey realizes she has no idea where they are headed. Again like he can hear her thoughts, Kylo answers.  
  
“We’re going to my grandfather’s castle on Mustafar. I’ve been stationed there by Supreme Leader Snoke in order for me to become stronger in the Dark Side of the Force. That is where you will learn.”  
  
“Will you teach me both the Light and Dark?”  
  
“If I know it, it’s yours. I will not hold you back from learning whatever you want. Ultimately, I do have hope that you will open yourself up to the Dark Side. You could be stronger in the Force if you do not shy away from the darkness inside of you. That is the mistake that Skywalker made.”  
  
Rey thinks for a moment, digesting what he said to her about the sides of the Force. There is only one thing that he said that she questions.  
  
“And how do you know there is darkness in me?”  
  
“I’ve seen it,” then, his words coming out in a rush and tone slightly in awe, “that night in the forest. After you sliced my face. You stood over me and I could feel it rolling off you. I could tell you wanted to kill me, wanted that more than anything. But, then the earth split apart and you ran.”  
  
Rey could not deny that she had wanted to kill him. Of course, now she was glad she didn’t but at the time she was so angry at her missed opportunity. Before she can say anything to him, he is turning to face her.  
  
“It will be a while before we get to Mustafar. If you would like, there is a small berth in the rear of the ship. I can get you something to eat and then you can rest.”  
  
“I don’t need to rest. I would like something to eat, though. Luke has been feeding me this weird fish and this nasty greenish-blue milk.”  
  
A hint of a smile graces his full lips and then it vanishes as he gets out of the pilot’s seat and heads toward a small cupboard built into the interior of the shuttle. When he returns a minute or so later, his arms are full of small packages. He pulls out a panel on the wall and reveals a folded table that he pushes on to expand it. He dumps the packages on the surface and starts opening each one. Curious, Rey stands and walks over to him. Each of the packages seems to be a different type of food.  
  
“I didn’t know what you like to eat so I got one of everything that was on the ship.” He runs his hand through his hair and she notices the tips of his ears are a bright red.  
  
“It’s perfect, thank you.”  
  
He nods and then makes to return to the cabin. Before she knows what she’s doing, her hand sticks out and grasps his forearm. He turns a little and gazes intently at the place where her fingers are wrapped around his arm.  
  
“Stay, please,” she begs.  
  
He sits across from where she is standing and it is only when he is fully seated does she take her own seat. Tearing open package after package, she eats until she feels like she could burst.  
  
***  
  
It is sometime later when the navicomputer beeps to let them know that they are dropping out of lightspeed and entering the Mustafar system. Kylo flies them closer to a landing pad in front of a large castle made of volcanic rock. When Rey steps onto the surface of the landing pad, the heat hits her hard. It’s a different kind of heat from Jakku where the air was dry but the sun was scorching. Here it’s fire and brimstone, the air smells of sulfur and lava bubbles all around her. She couldn’t possibly imagine someone willingly wanting to build their home here.  
  
A hand on the small of her back startles her, but she manages not to jump and scare him away. He leads her to a lift that takes them up to a large entrance hall made of the same volcanic rock that graces the exterior of the castle and the rock that the lava flows over. A small black droid rolls in from the hallway to their left and Rey gets a small pang in her chest for BB-8. The droid beeps at them in a flurry of binary. Kylo shakes his head and replies to the droid’s questions.  
  
“No, Niney, she isn’t a prisoner. She’s my- uh…” he pauses and turns his head toward her then swiftly back to the droid “...she’s my apprentice.”  
  
Rey gets the sense that he wanted to say something else but she can’t think what else he would call her. They’re not enemies anymore, but she wouldn’t say that they are friends either. What they have is so much more than a simple friendship. They inexplicably connected to each other. It’s like it’s been written into their very souls.  
  
The droid seems to accept Kylo’s answer because it turns and rolls down the hallway it had come from, whistling for them to follow. Again, Rey feels the warmth of Kylo’s ungloved hand on her lower back softly urging her forward. It’s comforting to her, no one has ever made her feel comforted before. She follows the droid, Niney, Kylo had called it, down the hallway and into another grander room. There was a long table with about a dozen chairs around it. Two doors flanked a large fireplace. Niney doesn’t stop in the dining room and continues through the door to the right of the fireplace. It leads to another hallway with doors every couple of feet. The droid stops in the middle of the hallway and rolls to face her and Kylo. Kylo’s hand falls away from her back and she turns her head to look up at his face. He points to the door at the end, next to the door that led to the dining room.  
  
“That door leads to the kitchens. Should you need something to eat during the day, the droids in there can make anything you want. The door here,” he indicates a black-paneled door, “leads to a set of training rooms that you may use. The door next to it is the library and the door at the end leads to the residential wing.”  
  
“Where does the door on the other side of the fireplace go?”  
  
“It’s simply another door to the kitchen. And if we turned right instead of left in the entrance hall, we would be in another wing of the castle that is used by the Knights of Ren and the stormtrooper garrison that is stationed here every day. There are other training rooms, a separate mess hall, sleeping barracks, and the command center in that wing.”  
  
“Are the Knights here as well?”  
  
Rey had never heard of the Knights of Ren. She assumed they were loyal to Kylo based off of his name.  
  
“Some of them. As we are independent of the other activities the First Order engages in, we have different assignments and do not often stay together in the same place.”  
  
Rey nods her head and looks around the hallway. The walls are the same rock as before with small sections of glass across from each door that looks out onto the rivers of molten lava, giving the room a red tinge. Kylo gestures to Niney and guides her forward toward the door at the end of the hallway that leads to the residential wing. The room they walk into is shaped like a hexagon and looks like a basic lounge. There are low gray couches and red chairs. On three of the walls, there are doors that Rey assumes leads to private quarters. On the wall directly across from the door they just walked through is another fireplace, slightly smaller than the one in the dining room. To the right of the fireplace is another hallway that splits off.  
  
“The two doors on the left are small offices, one of which is used by me. You may use the other if you would like. The door on the right here is a meditation chamber, it used to house Darth Vader’s bacta chamber when the castle was in his possession.”  
  
They continue down the long hallway. Kylo tells Rey that the doors in this hallway lead to private quarters for any guests of the castle.  
  
“Is that where I will stay?”  
  
“No, I have asked the droids to prepare rooms for you on the top level next to my own quarters."  
  
At the end of the hallway is a lift that takes them up several stories to the top level. Kylo explains to her that the doors he pointed out earlier as the library and training rooms lead to their own lifts to take them to the respective rooms.  
  
“You can also use this elevator from your rooms to get to those floors, but there are multiple ways to get to both areas should the need arise.”  
  
When the lift stops, Kylo leads her out into a small hallway with only two doors opposite each other. He stops in front of the door on the right side of the hallway.  
  
“This room is yours. Feel free to decorate it any way you want, I want you to feel comfortable here.”  
  
He keys into the room and Rey walks forward to take in her new room. She feels overwhelmed, she’s never had her own room before. Her old AT-AT did not count. There is a small sitting area, a door that reveals a ‘fresher, another that reveals a bedroom and a small room Rey guesses to be a closet based on the various shelves and drawers lining the walls.  
  
Rey turns back to face Kylo, not knowing what to say or do. Like he senses that she is at a loss, he steps into the room and walks in front of her.  
  
“You should get some sleep. We start training tomorrow at dawn.”  
  
With that, he brushes his lips against her forehead and with one last indecipherable look, walks out the door. Rey stands frozen in the center of the room for a moment and then turns to walk into the bedroom. When she lays down on the soft mattress, all she can do is replay what just happened.  
  
“I think he just kissed me…” she says wondrously. Then the day’s emotional toll catches up to her and she falls asleep.


	4. Interaction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Kylo begin their training

Rey wakes up disoriented. Thinking she must have finally gotten used to the hard stone that she slept on, it isn’t until she is sitting up in a large mattress that the previous day comes back to her. Leaving Luke, meeting Kylo on Takodana, flying to Mustafar, getting her own rooms, and the kiss that Kylo left on her forehead as he left her rooms last night. She gets out of the bed and decides to go looking for Kylo. He had said they start training at dawn but she has no idea when that is. For all she knows, it is still the middle of the night. She exits her room and walks a couple of steps to his door. As soon as she lifts her fist to knock, the doors open. Kylo’s rooms look roughly the same as hers. She finds him sitting on one of the smaller chairs reading something on a datapad. He looks up when she enters.  
  
“Good morning, how did you sleep?”  
  
“ I slept well,” she replies slowly, “when are we going to start training?”  
  
He stands from his chair and gestures for her to follow him out the door and down the lift to the dining room. He pulls out a chair and Rey understands that she is to sit in the chair offered to her. Once he has sat down next to her, two droids come rolling out of the kitchen and deposit two bowls of some creamy looking substance in front of them. Kylo immediately grabs a spoon and starts to eat. When he notices that she isn’t eating and is just staring at their breakfast he unhunches from over his bowl and wipes his mouth on a napkin.  
  
“Eat, it’ll help you sustain energy. You’ll need a lot today if we are going to accomplish half of what I have planned for today.”  
  
“And what is it that you have planned today?”  
  
“We need to build trust between us. If you are to learn from me, you must trust me. Until recently, you and I were enemies. So, today we will start with basic Force abilities and then gradually move our way up from there.”  
  
Rey picks up her spoon and starts eating the creamy mush in her bowl. It tastes plain with a hint of saltiness. When they are both finished with their bowls, the same droids come out and carry them back to the kitchen. Kylo stands from his seat and waits for her to stand up as well before he starts to walk down the hallway to the second door that will take them to the training rooms.  
  
The room Kylo selects for them to use is as large as a hangar with weapon racks, a climbing wall, a sparring ring, and a weird array of platforms hanging from the ceiling that are oddly spaced apart. Rey turns in a circle to examine everything inside the room before turning back to Kylo, who has walked to a small padded area and sat down. Rey follows him and sits down on the floor opposite him.  
  
“I want you to try to get inside my head as you did before. It will be easier to communicate with each other if we don’t have to bother with comms or waiting for the Force itself to connect us”  
  
Rey nods and shuts her eyes like she did on Ahch-To when she was able to breach his mind. She searches for the red string that connects them, tugging on it when she finds it.  
  
“Good, now try to break through the walls I have put up. That will strengthen your power and make it easier for your mind to effortlessly connect with mine,” his voice is calming and gentle as he instructs her.  
  
Rey dives back into their connection and is met with a wall. She tries hammering against it with her own mind but meets the same resistance. Then like she did on Starkiller, she tries just forcing her way in. Still no luck.  
  
“Imagine it is a stone wall. Find the loose stone and dismantle it brick by brick”  
  
Doubling her efforts, Rey tries to find the weak link. Imagining herself walking next to a stone wall, she searches for a loose stone as Kylo describes it. Finally, just as she was getting frustrated, she finds the way in and is greeted with roaring emotions and flashes of memories. She thinks she sees her own face mixed in with all the other faces in his memories before he shuts her out again.  
  
He is panting slightly as he says “good, that was- that was good. Next time we will work on making a quick entrance and maybe if you get the hang of that quickly we can move on to reading thoughts without being detected. It’s helpful in conflict situations where you might be double-crossed.”  
  
Kylo stands up and walks over to a panel, pushing a button and retrieving a cold bottle of water that he hands to her. Rey gulps down over half the bottle, not realizing how thirsty she was. When she feels her thirst is quenched enough, she sets the bottle on the floor next to her knees. Kylo returns to his seated position across from her.  
  
“Now, we will meditate. I want you to focus on opening up your senses, try to count how many beings are in the castle and try to find out where in the castle they are.”  
  
Rey shuts her eyes and focuses her breathing, trying to discern how many people there are in the castle. She can feel Kylo’s Force signature in front of her and she lingers on it for a moment before reaching out and feeling for others. She can feel five tiny sparks in the Force on the other side of the castle and she can feel over one hundred in what she assumes is the stormtrooper’s mess. She sits there for who knows how long, feeling her way around the castle with the Force. Kylo’s hand on her knee startles her and her eyes flash open.  
  
“That is enough for today. You are still untrained and too much use of the Force will drain you completely of energy. We need to have lunch and then we will go to the library to continue your training.”  
  
***  
  
After lunch, she and Kylo make their way to the library. On the way, Rey decides to ask him about the kiss he left on her forehead last night.  
  
“Last night… you kissed my forehead before you left my room.”  
  
He nods his head once, not giving anything away, and she takes that as a sign to continue.  
  
“And I was just wondering why?” she finishes quickly, looking up at his face in order to gauge his emotions.  
  
His face is the same as it was before, but the twitch under his left eye tells her he isn’t as unaffected as he would’ve liked.  
  
“It was …” he pauses as if deciding what to say. “It was an impulsive decision brought on by the fact that I never thought you would ever come to me. I was merely reacting to the emotions of the day. I apologize for making you feel uncomfortable, I will not do it again.”  
  
She’s quick to reassure him, “no! That wasn’t why I was asking. I, um, liked it. It didn’t make me feel uncomfortable. At all!”  
  
He just stares at her after her little ramble and then continues on to the library. After they have sat down, he looks up at her and says, “I’m glad I didn’t make you feel uncomfortable.”  
  
She gives him a smile at that before he is turning to the stacks of holopads lining the shelves. He walks down one aisle and starts selecting some of them to bring to a table in the center of the floor. He sets them down and then offers her a seat at the table like he did at breakfast. Kylo grabs one off the top of the pile and sets it down in front of her. Powering it on, Rey sees that it contains files that discuss the history of the Sith. Detailed biographies of Sith Lords and their apprentices. She flicks through the list, reading the names. Revan, Malak, Bane, Plagueis, Sidious, Maul, Tyranus, Vader. Thousands of years hiding in the shadows until they finally were able to make their public debut.  
  
“What is the Rule of Two?” she asks, having scrolled past a file with that title.  
  
“Having many Sith Lords caused lots of infighting. After finding a holocron of Darth Revan’s, Darth Bane devised the rule so that the Sith could continue to gain strength and power. The rule is fairly simple. Only two Sith at a time, a master and an apprentice. No more and no less. To become the master, the apprentice would slay their master and then find an apprentice of their own. The cycle would continue and the Sith would prosper.”  
  
“So you are the apprentice?”  
  
He shakes his head, “No, Supreme Leader Snoke is not a Sith. I am merely a user of the Dark Side of the Force.”  
  
“But you want to be a Sith?” she looks up at him and watches as he nods slightly, “that’s why you are training me. So then there will be two.”  
  
“Yes. I had a vision many years ago of a girl with brown hair growing up to be a young woman who would stand by my side as I rebuilt the Empire my grandfather helped build. I thought it was merely a trick of the Force until the day that I was told the droid I was looking for escaped on my father’s ship aided by a girl. That is when I began to hope that what the Force showed me was true.”  
  
Rey stares at him, unsure of what to say to him. She didn’t know how she fit into the story. Why her? A nobody from the Jakku wastelands. Then, she thought of the vision she had when they touched hands. Them, together on the bridge of a star destroyer cloaked in black, bending the galaxy to their will. It was a heady feeling for the lost little girl inside of her. The feeling of power and belonging. She could make sure that all the children were fed and had parents, good parents. There would be no need for rebellions or resistance because every citizen of the galaxy would be happy and provided for. There would be no more Unkar Plutt’s. She liked that last thought the most.  
  
“I’m ready, Kylo. I’m ready to stand by your side. It’s why I left Skywalker in the first place.”  
  
She tries to send him a mental image of her vision of them standing together. She thinks he got it because his eyes widened and his lips quirked up into a real smile.  
  
“Then we need to train unlike anyone before us. To rule the galaxy, one must be strong. We need to be stronger, smarter, faster, better than those who came before us.”  
  
***  
  
Their routine was relatively the same every day. At dawn, either she or Kylo would wake up first and then wake the other. After breakfast, they meditated together and worked on strengthening their Force bond. Then, they would do light physical workouts and eat lunch. From midday until evening, they would train with lightsabers and other Force abilities. After dinner, they sat in the library pouring over the files on past Sith Lords and other Force wielders. To be strong, Kylo had said the second day of reading, one must be a master of all. With that in mind, they studied both the Light and Dark Sides of the Force, blending techniques and doctrines together into a mix of their own brand of the Force. After they read together, they would walk back to their rooms and Kylo would leave a kiss on her forehead before he went to his rooms for the night and she went to hers.  
  
When Rey wakes up on the one month anniversary of her arrival on Mustafar, there is a new addition to her room’s decor. Sitting on one of the low tables by the couch is a bouquet of flowers in a stone vase. Gently, Rey runs her fingers over the red petals.  
  
“I remember my fa- I mean, I heard somewhere that flowers are a good gift for anniversaries. I thought you might like some color in your rooms,” his voice, low and shy, comes from the open door.  
  
Knowing that he was remembering his father bringing his mother flowers and knowing how he felt about his parents, she ignores his slip-up. Rey looks up from the flowers to look at him. Like the time on the command ship when he brought her food, he runs his fingers through his hair and reveals the bright red tips of his ears. She smiles at the sight and he manages a small smile in return. Rey walks toward him and grasps his hand in hers, squeezing hard once and letting go, telling him without words that she likes the flowers. He holds her gaze and nods, understanding perfectly what she was trying to convey.  
  
They go to breakfast together and then went to the meditation room to work on their bond. They had managed to send feelings and sometimes words in the past month. Today, they sat facing each other, trying to create a feedback loop between their minds that would make it easier for them to communicate long distances. So far, they have been unable to replicate what Rey had done on Ahch-To to contact him through the Force. She tried tugging on the string in her head like she had when she was trying to tell him she was coming to join him to no avail.  
  
Their palms were resting against the other’s and they both sat with their eyes closed. Searching for their bond, Rey tries to open her mind to the Force so she can hear him. Nothing happens. Frustrated, Rey moves her hands away from his and stands up. Pacing around the room, she tries to shake off how angry she is about their failure to connect to each other at will. She shuts her eyes and presses her hands to the sides of her face, muttering under her breath about how much of a failure she is and how the Force was wrong to give her powers. Suddenly, when she is mid-turn, large hands come to rest on her upper arms and rub up and down. She comes to a halt in front of Kylo, breathing harshly through her mouth as tears gather in her eyes.  
  
“Rey, breathe, it’s going to get better. You’re still new at this stuff, it’s not like lifting rocks.”  
  
“But how am I to prove to you that the Force didn’t make a mistake with me if I can’t get the hang of this fast?”  
  
Rey watches as his eyebrows draw together before his lips press into a thin line. Rey doesn’t know what to make of his expression. Is he angry with her, is he about to agree with her and tell her to leave? She prepares herself to be told off in the seconds it takes him to reply.  
  
“Listen to me! The Force doesn’t make mistakes, you are here because this is where you were meant to be. I don’t care is you never master everything I teach you, the only thing I care about is having you by my side. Do you understand? I spent so long thinking the Force was playing tricks on me for giving me visions of someone by my side. Then I saw you on Takodana and I knew that the Force doesn’t lie. This is your destiny.” He grips her arms firmly and his dark eyes bore into hers with an intensity unlike she has seen before. She nods once and he releases her.  
  
“For now, let’s move on to sparring,” he starts to walk to the door and down the hallway to the lift.  
  
***  
  
The crackling red blade swings overhead, just missing the spot where her head once was as her arms come up and blue clashes against red. Kylo insisted that training had to be just like real fighting. And so, after the first couple of days where he showed her some basic forms, every spar between them was real. That meant no quarter, they fought until they couldn’t. Nothing was off limits and they often left the training rooms covered in bruises and burns from when they got too close to the other’s saber. Sparring lasted a while. They had been at this for hours by now, not stopping to eat lunch.  
  
Rey dodges his fist and kicks her leg out, hooking her foot around his ankle to pull him to the ground. His saber arcs through the air and she parries each swipe. Suddenly his hand shoots out and she is frozen in place.  
  
“Yield,” he says, bringing his saber up in front of her face.  
  
“Never!” and she swipes her lightsaber out in a wide arc in front of her body.  
  
He dodges the blow and brings his saber up and twists his wrist to push her saber down with the crossguard vent of his lightsaber. Her blade slips from her grasp and flies across the room. Then, she is tackled to the ground. Her hand comes up and wraps around his wrist, bending it so he is forced to let go of his saber. She knees him in the chest and rolls out from under him. Calling her saber back to her hand, she ignites it and holds their sabers in a cross shape on either side of his neck.  
  
“Now, you yield,” she says with a smirk, sitting on his lap with her legs framing his hips to keep him in place.  
  
He looks winded and surprised. Nodding his head he replies in a low tone, “I yield.”  
  
Satisfied with herself, she powers down the sabers and lets them fall to the floor. Resting her hands on the top of his shoulders, she pants from the exertion of hauling his large frame to the ground. A piece of hair has fallen out of the knot on top of her head to rest across her face. Before she can think to move it, his hand comes up and gently pushes the strand of hair behind her ear and runs his fingers down her jaw. Rey shivers on top of him and then stops, feeling something pressing on the inside of her thigh. He must realize it the same moment she does because he is then pushing her from his lap and standing up. Not looking at her, he rushes out the door.  
  
Confused, Rey sits on the floor of the empty training room trying to figure out what she did wrong. Feeling her stomach rumble with hunger, she stands and makes her way to the kitchens to grab herself dinner. Sitting alone at the long dining table, she eats her food and thinks over what happened between them in the training room. Just as she was thinking about what she felt against her thigh, the door behind her opens and Kylo steps into the room. When he sees her sitting at the table, he pauses.  
  
“Are you okay?” Rey asks him quietly, unsure whether to talk or not.  
  
His eyes widen a fraction, then he clears his throat lightly, “Perfectly fine, thank you. I had some urgent business to take care of that could not wait another second. I apologize for running out on you like that, it will not happen again.”  
  
Rey nods once and then continues eating. The chair next to her scrapes against the floor as he sits down next to her. When she is done eating she turns to him.  
  
“What now?”  
  
“I thought you could use a break from our routine. So, the rest of the day is yours to do as you wish.”  
  
“And if I would like to stay with you?” Rey looks steadily at his face.  
  
“Then you may accompany me to the library, I find reading to be quite calming after a long day of training.”  
  
They make their way to the library. Instead of sitting at one of the tables in the center, Kylo leads the way through the stacks until he comes to a small niche that has a couple of sofas pushed into it. The space is cozy and inviting. There is a small window that looks out onto the fiery planet below. Rey falls onto one of the sofas and Kylo takes the other. Kylo produces a datapad from a small pile that sits on the cushion next to him. After she grabs one of her own, she rests her head back and begins to read the story of a young senator who fell in love with a former slave turned Jedi from Tatooine. After a while, her eyes become heavy and she lets herself be pulled to sleep.  
  
It is some time later when she feels as if she were floating. Something warm and solid is against her side and hooked under her knees and behind her back. Cracking her eyes open, she sees the underside of Kylo’s jaw. Shutting her eyes again, she lets herself enjoy the feeling of his arms supporting her. Then she hears a door open and feels herself being put down onto her bed. The covers are pulled up under her chin and his hand brushes her hair back from her face and linger on her cheek for a moment longer. She feels the rustle of his clothes and feels the bed move from him standing up. She keeps her eyes shut, not wanting him to run away from her again. She hears him sigh and then she feels the pressure of his lips on her cheek.  
  
“Goodnight, Rey.”  
  
She hears the door open and shut again as she rolls over to watch as he disappears through her bedroom door.


	5. Intruder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Kylo get interrupted by an unwanted guest... and we meet a couple of the Knights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know with recent publications of comics, the Knights aren't really friendly with Kylo but I wanted him to have more of a support group. Also, I haven't exactly figured out where the Resistance is at this point but it will be answered in future chapters. This chapter is a little shorter than I wanted it to be but I will be making more of an effort to write longer chapters.   
Thanks to everyone who has read so far! Hope you enjoy!

They’re sitting in the dining room when it happens. Rey had just mentioned how calm she felt here, how happy she was to feel a sense of belonging.  
  
“I’ve never really had people who cared about me, about my well-being. For the short time I was at the Resistance base, I got the sense that people thought they knew who I was because I was going to bring their legend, Luke Skywalker, back to them. But, I realized when I was in the cave that none of them actually knew me. They don’t know the things I’ve had to do to survive,” she pauses, lost in memories from another life.  
  
_A ship blasting off into the sky, her throat aching as she screamed for them to come back, and a rough meaty hand on her arm that holds her back. That deep ever-present pit in her stomach when Plutt refused to give her portions for her finds. The storms of sand that raged unpredictably. The dryness of her chapped lips and mouth after going days without water because she couldn’t find enough fuses and data chips to trade for a drop of water. The cavernous spaces in the fallen giants of the Graveyard. The terror she felt when she slipped while scaling the walls of one of the largest ships. The anger when other scavengers stole her finds. The adrenaline that flowed through her while she fought with her staff. The sounds of bones crushing under her staff when she had to fight the bigger men who would try to scare her into entering the pleasure-tents and selling her body like some others did when they couldn’t scavenge anymore. The steelpecker hammering against the roof of her AT-AT that was the lullaby that she fell asleep to. 4,745 marks on the wall of her little home, marking the thirteen years that she waited for someone to come back to her like they promised_.  
  
“But I do,” he says softly, startling out of her memories of Jakku. She had almost forgotten that he was there.  
  
He’s looking at her in that mysterious way he sometimes did, as if he was deciding on whether or not to act. Rey watches his eyes dip down for a moment and then he leans toward her slightly. His hand comes up and his fingers brush against her face from her temple to her jaw. Her breath hitches in her throat and she leans forward as well. He seems to be considering something before he opens his mouth and her name comes out in a soft rush of air.  
  
“Rey…” he pauses and then continues, “there’s something I need to tell you... something important.”  
  
She nods her head, unable to speak.  
  
“I wanted to tell you that I am so happy that you are here, that we’re working together. I never thought this day would come. I must confess, I think that I am-”  
  
He is interrupted when the door slams open and a pale, red-haired man storms into the room. Four masked figures file in behind him and take up posts near the table. They are dressed in all black and each one has a distinct mask shape and weapon.  
  
“Ren! What is the meaning of this?” the red-haired man spits at Kylo.  
  
“Nothing that concerns you, _General_.” Kylo sneers at the man who barged into the room.  
  
“You have captured the scavenger and didn’t report it to me. As one of the highest-ranking members of the First Order Navy, I should have been alerted to the fact that you are keeping an enemy combatant in such _close_ quarters. Instead, it was mentioned in passing by a _droid_. Why have you disregarded the proper chain of command?”  
  
“Because I don’t answer to you, Hux. The Knights of Ren are independent of the First Order military and therefore, anything that we do doesn’t have to be reported to you or any other ranking members.”  
  
The red-haired man, Hux, stands up straighter at that and his face turns redder than Rey thought was possible. “Regardless, I doubt Supreme Leader Snoke would approve of this.”  
  
At that, Kylo stiffens slightly, his fists clenching for a moment and then releasing trying not to give anything away. “Careful, General. I’m sure the Supreme Leader would be interested in hearing your doubts about his leadership.”  
  
Hux pales visibly at Kylo’s words. “No, no! There is no need for that. I will return to the fleet at once.”  
  
The man turns and walks out the door he came in on, the doors shut behind him. Kylo relaxes and turns to one of the masked figures in the corner. “See that he doesn’t tell the Supreme Leader that I have her here with me. If Snoke figures out what I’m planning, we’re all dead.”  
  
The figure nods and follows Hux out the door. The three other figures remain in the room, not moving from their positions. Rey eyes them warily. Kylo turns to face her, reaching for one of her hands. She reaches out and lets him take it.  
  
“Who are they?” she asks, keeping her voice low.  
  
“Some of my Knights. I don’t want you to worry about them. They are completely loyal to me. They’ve been with me longer than I have been with Snoke.”  
  
He turns back to the masked figures and nods his head. The three figures take their helmets off simultaneously revealing their faces. A woman with long red hair steps forward followed by one of the Knights, a man with dark hair and greenish colored eyes. The woman walks around the table to where Rey is sitting and stares at her for a moment before breaking into the widest smile Rey has seen.  
  
“Hi, you must be Rey! I’m Mira! It’s so nice to finally meet you! Kylo hasn’t told us much about you except that you decided to join him. Have you been around the planet yet? It’s really hot and sometimes it smells, but it’s fun to practice Force jumping from one rock to another over the lava rivers. We’ll have to go one day, it’ll be so much fun! When we leave the planet, I’ll take you to Coruscant. There are so many things to do there! We should practice together sometime. I-”  
  
“Mira,” Kylo interrupts her.  
  
The woman, Mira, turns to him looking annoyed, “_What_?”  
  
“Slow down, you just met her. You’re talking too fast and it’s scaring her.” Kylo replies. Rey gets the sense that they have conversations like this a lot. But, Rey thinks she might come to like Mira. She isn’t as afraid of the Knights as she once was. Rey is comforted by the fact that she can have friends here.  
  
“It’s nice to meet you too, Mira,” Rey says, “I haven’t been on the planet yet and I would love to train with you.”  
  
Mira beams and then gestures to the men behind her. “This is Silas,” she points at the dark-haired man who had stepped behind her, “and this is Aurelius.” Rey follows Mira’s gaze to the man still standing in the corner of the room. His hair is the color of the sun on Jakku and his eyes are the color of her lightsaber. He stares at her impassively and nods once. Mira continues to talk to Rey, telling her about the other Knights.  
  
“There are twelve of us in all. There’s me, Kylo, obviously, Silas, Aurelius, Jex is the one who went after Hux. We’re stationed here most of the time and we follow Kylo almost everywhere he goes. Then there’s Tiberius who is stationed in the Core Worlds monitoring what happens there. Clea and Aurora are sisters, they aren’t permanently stationed on a planet, they stay with the fleet. Dax is the youngest of us all so he stays with the fleet as well. Asha is Dathomirian so she usually is tasked with exploring planets rich in the Force. And then there are Freya and Jaspar, they’re together, stationed in the Mid Rim but sometimes they move to the Outer Rim. And then there’s you, but I don’t think we can call you a Knight yet.”  
  
“If you’re done, we were trying to eat before we were interrupted by Hux. Speaking of, why did he come?” Kylo directs the last bit to the man, Silas, standing behind Mira.  
  
“No idea. Just showed up about an hour ago with no explanation. Said he had to see you immediately. We followed him here to make sure he didn’t try anything. You know he doesn’t trust Force users.”  
  
“Hmm,” Kylo hums, “tell Jex to lightly skim his thoughts. I want to know what he’s up to. I don’t buy that he just decided to make his way here when he has said time and again how much he detests the planet.”  
  
Silas nods and pulls out a commlink. Kylo gestures to the seats next to him and the three Knights take their seats. They all sit in awkward silence for a minute or two before Rey turns to Mira.  
  
“You said something about exploring the planet?”  
  
“Oh, yes! Sometimes Silas and I will go out and practice our Force abilities by the lava rivers.”  
  
“That sounds very dangerous,” Rey replies.  
  
“Well yes, I suppose it is dangerous. But that’s half of the fun! There’s nothing like knowing that if you make a mistake while jumping over the rivers, you’ll burn to death!” Even when talking about burning to death in a lava river, Mira’s enthusiasm is infectious and Rey can’t help but laugh with her.  
  
***  
  
Later, Rey and Kylo are in the library reading as usual. Rey remembers earlier before Hux showed up that Kylo was about to tell her something. She looks up from her datapad and turns her head to face him. He is engrossed in his own reading but looks up as soon as he feels her gaze on him.  
  
“What is it?” he asks.  
  
“Earlier, you were about to tell me something. Right when Hux opened the door, you were saying that you were something. What are you?”  
  
“Oh, um,” he clears his throat, “I am just happy you’re here with me.”  
  
“You’ve told me that already. The way you acted made it sound like it was something more.”  
  
“No. That was all.” He sets his datapad aside and stands up from the couch. “It’s late, we should go to bed.”  
  
She nods and they make their way to their rooms. He kisses her on the forehead and turns to head into his room.  
  
“Are you sure that was it? You’re acting strange.”  
  
“Rey, that was it. I just wanted to tell you how honored I am that you have joined me.” His voice is tight. He doesn’t turn to look at her before he walks into his room.  
  
Rey heard what he said about telling her he’s happy she is here. But, she knows that he is lying to her. She wonders what was so important that he feels he is unable to confide in her.  
  
***  
  
Mira had come to the dining room just as she and Kylo were finishing their breakfast asking if she wanted to go out by the lava rivers. Rey had immediately accepted, excited to hang out with someone new.  
  
They’re standing on a ledge while Mira explains what to do. She demonstrates for Rey, leaping into the air to land on one of the platforms that float down the river. Mira leaps from platform to platform before turning back to return to where Rey was waiting.  
  
“You try it now! Make sure to leap a second before the platform gets to where you want it to be. Picture the Force as a bridge between where you are and where you want to be.”  
  
Rey nods, suddenly nervous about jumping over lava. It’s not like jumping from ledge to ledge in the bowels of the star destroyers on Jakku. There’s more dire consequences should she misjudge the distance. Taking a deep breath to center herself in the Force like Kylo taught her, she imagines herself leaping into the air and landing on the floating platform that is getting closer and closer to where she stands. Crouching a bit, still with her eyes closed, Rey feels her muscles bunch in preparation. The next thing she knows, she’s soaring over the molten rock and landing on the little platform. Mira cheers from her position of the ledge and then jumps to follow her. They spend a couple more hours leaping around on the planet before beginning the trek back up to the fortress.  
  
“So, what’s going on with you and Kylo?” Mira asks conversationally as they’re walking.  
  
“Um, I’m not really sure. We spend most of our days together, he kisses me on the forehead every night when we go to our respective rooms. But, beyond that, I have no idea. He told me he wants me to stand by his side as he rebuilds the empire his grandfather helped to build.”  
  
“You shouldn’t say that so loud. Snoke has ears everywhere,” Mira says lowly. “I thought something may have happened between you too based on the way he was looking at you yesterday.”  
  
“What do you mean? He looks at me the way he has always looked at me. From the first moment when I made him take off his helmet in the interrogation chamber, he’s looked at me like that. I didn’t notice anything different.”  
  
“Well, he looks at you like you are all of the stars in his galaxy. Like you’re the only thing that matters.”  
  
“No, he’s not looking at me like that,” Rey says in a rush.  
  
“Whatever you say. Let me just tell you one last thing. I know what that look means, Rey. It’s the same look that Silas gets when he looks at me: undying devotion.”  
  
“You...and Silas? Are together?”  
  
“Since we were a little younger than you are now.”  
  
“And Snoke allows it?”  
  
Mira’s expression darkens and it is the only time Rey has seen her lose her boundless enthusiasm. “He doesn’t like it. Thinks compassion makes us _weak_. But, he understands anger and passion, the keys to the Dark Side. He knows that if something were to happen to me, Silas would die. And he can’t afford to lose us.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
Mira shakes her head and then as quick as her good mood disappears, it is back and she is smiling again. “That’s a story for another time! Come on, I’m starving!”  
  
They finally make it to the kitchens where the kitchen droids whip them up a plate each. When they’re done eating, Mira says goodbye and Rey heads to the library to look for Kylo. She finds him in their little nook, asleep. Staring at his peaceful form, Rey remembers what Mira had said about the way Kylo looks at her. She leans closer and brushes her hand down the side of his face, pushing the errant strands of dark hair behind his ear. He stirs as her fingers trace the shell of his ear and she drops her hands but doesn’t step away from him.  
  
“Rey…” his voice is gravely from sleep and his eyes are still half-closed.  
  
His hands come to wrap around her waist and he pulls her down on top of his lap, burying his head in the curve of her neck. She gasps softly as she feels his lips press to the column of her throat and threads her arms around his neck, burying her fingers in his hair.  
  
“My Rey,” he sighs into her neck.  
  
“Kylo,” she replies, her voice high and needy.  
  
He pulls his face from the curve of her neck and stares at her for a moment. Rey looks back at him and can suddenly see what Mira saw. _Mira was right_, Rey thinks, _it_ is _like undying devotion_. He leans closer to her and she doesn’t stop him. Her breath hitches in her throat as he softly brushes his soft lips over hers. He pulls back a second later to look at her again. She can see the moment reality hits him because his eyes widen with clarity and he pushes her from his lap.  
  
“Rey, I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I was asleep and I was dreaming-”  
  
She stops him by pulling his face back to hers and kissing him again. Her fingers find their way back to his hair and then he finally responds. Pulling her closer to him, he puts one hand around her waist and the other cups the back of her head. She pulls back a couple of seconds later.  
  
“Don’t be sorry,” she says with a smile on her face before she leans back to kiss him again and again and again.


	6. Summons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Kylo's relationship grows stronger, but Snoke's plans threaten to tear them apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the long wait! I had a little bit of writer's block and then real life got away from me...But, here's chapter 6! I hope to have the next chapter up by next week and then update every other week. Also, I deleted the slow burn and eventual smut tags because I just didn't know how to keep the two away from each other, especially after TROS...

Kylo’s lips brush against hers one last time and then he pulls away from their embrace. Rey opens her eyes slowly, not wanting the moment to end. But when her eyes open fully the look on his face makes her lungs stop drawing in air and she feels her heart skip a beat. It’s a thousand times better than when he looked at her before the kisses they shared. He is better than every green thing in this universe and the next. Rey feels confused, she has never felt this way about another being in her entire life. Sure, she was friends with Finn and felt connected to Leia and Chewie. But she was able to leave them behind to come here, she can’t ever imagine leaving Kylo’s side.  
  
“What is it?” Kylo asks her, trailing his fingers over the side of her face as if to memorize it.  
  
“Nothing. I’ve just never felt this way before and it frightens me that I am growing this attached to you.” Her left-hand moves through his hair while the other traces the edge of his lips.  
  
“I know exactly what you mean, Rey. Luke thought that my emotions made me reckless and brought me closer to the Dark Side. Snoke thinks any compassion or happiness I feel makes me weak. I’ve never been allowed to just feel what I want to feel.”  
  
Rey stares at him and feels a wave of anger wash over her. How dare Luke and Snoke try to tell him who he should be or how he should feel!  
  
“Mira said something similar earlier when she was telling me about her and Silas being together. That Snoke thought them weak for having attachments.”  
  
“Yes. That’s why he can’t find out about us until you’ve been trained more. Because he will want to see you in person and that will be our chance to get rid of him.”  
  
Rey nods her head to let him know she understands. “How do we keep him from finding out about us? That man, Hux, he knows. How can you ensure he won’t tell Snoke?”  
  
“Jex reported back to me. He says Hux hasn’t made any transmissions or met with Snoke. I have my Knights on the _Finalizer_ tracking his every move. I will know if he tries to make contact with Snoke.”  
  
“How much time do we have before he finds out about us?” Rey asks, suddenly worried that Snoke will find out what they are planning on doing.  
  
“A few months, maybe. I don’t know for sure, he says he’s always in my head, that he knows what I will do before I can even think to do it. But I think if he already knew he would kill us all.”  
  
Rey feels that well of anger at Snoke again. Is no thought secret with him? “I need you to teach me everything you know. If we have any chance of beating him, we need to be on the same level.”  
  
Kylo nods his head and then pulls her face back to his so he can kiss her again. Then, he stands and holds out his hand to her. She follows him out of the library and back up to where their respective rooms are. Like every night before this one, he kisses her forehead. Then, he brushes little kisses on her cheeks, nose making her giggle softly and then finally a longer, deeper one on her lips. Rey smiles at him one more time before heading into her rooms and readying for bed.  
  
***  
  
They change their routine in the wake of Hux’s impromptu visit to Mustafar. No longer do they spend time in the library reading the history of the Jedi and the Sith. They spend most of their time training. He teaches her every Force ability he knows and they spend a lot of time working on making their bond as strong as possible. He teaches her Force Destruction, battle meditation, Force stun, and then tries to explain how to produce lightning.  
  
“I’ve never been able to do it,” he told her. “It requires the user to turn their hate into a weapon. Snoke can do it though.”  
  
Rey knows she doesn’t have that level of hate in her for her to produce lightning. There is rage and anger inside of her, yes, but she doesn’t hate.  
  
They spar with the Knights until they are on the brink of exhaustion. Rey had never seen her body covered in so many bruises and burns. There was a particularly nasty looking one on her thigh that she got when she didn’t turn her feet the right way while dodging a strike from Silas. His lightsaber had grazed the side of her leg and she had immediately fallen to the ground with a cry that made Kylo step away from Aurelius and run to her side in a panic. She had had to reassure him over and over again that she would be fine and that the burn would heal. She found it sweet, though, the way he hovered over her and constantly checked to see if she was okay. And the way his hand covered so much of her skin when he wrapped his hand around her thigh to keep the blood at bay while the other Knights raced to get a medkit and apply bacta patches to the burn made something inside of her clench and fill with heat.  
  
***  
  
Rey is lying on her bed trying to fall asleep when she hears a knock on her door. Moving the covers aside, she stands and walks through the living room to the door. Opening it, she sees Kylo on the other side with such a look of panic in his eyes that she wonders for a moment if they have been attacked.  
  
“Kylo, what is it?” Rey’s on alert, scanning the hallway and reaching through the Force to feel her way through the fortress.  
  
“The Knights and I have been recalled to Snoke’s side. He demands our presence on his ship, the _Supremacy_, immediately. I have to leave.” He says this with such a note of finality that makes Rey curl her hand around his jaw to comfort him.  
  
“It’s going to be okay. Go to him, see what he wants, and then come back to me.”  
  
Rey reaches up to him and kisses him softly. She feels one of his arms hook around her waist to pull her closer while his other hand curls into her hair. He walks her back into her room. Rey feels her knees hit the couch and then he is spinning her around so he can sit on the couch with her straddling his lap. He clutches her to his body and when one of his hands drifts down to rest on her thigh, she gasps. He uses that to lightly push his tongue into her mouth. She moans lightly at the feeling and that spurs him on. His hands don’t stay in one spot for more than a couple of seconds. Rey gets the sense that he is overwhelmed with the feeling of her body on top of his and doesn’t know where to touch her.  
  
Rey is losing herself in the feeling of his lips and hands on hers when she feels something pressing at her thigh. She breaks the kiss to look down where her legs are wrapped around his waist. She sees a distinct bulge under his pants and then, finally realizing what she was feeling, looks back up at Kylo. His hair is mussed from her hands running through it and his lips are red and a little swollen. He looks how she imagines she looks herself. His ears though are bright red, betraying his embarrassment that she felt how aroused he was. She smiles lightly at him.  
  
He’s breathing heavily as he says, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get-”  
  
She’s quick to cut him off, “Don’t apologize, I like it. I like knowing that you want me as much as I want you.”  
  
Kylo drops his head back with a low groan. “Do you have any idea of what hearing you say that does to me?”  
  
Rey smirks at him and then deliberately moves her hips in a slow circle. His head comes up at that and he groans with his mouth slightly open.  
  
“I think I have some idea,” she says.  
  
He surprises her then by flipping her suddenly so she is laying on the couch with him hovering over her. There is a dark, wicked look in his eyes that makes her insides clench in excitement. He bends down to kiss her and then moves his mouth to press feverish kisses down the side of her throat. At the same time, he rolls his hips into hers. This time she’s the one to throw her head back and groan. Every noise that springs from her mouth eggs him on. Rey is just on the edge of falling over the peak of pleasure when his commlink goes off. He ignores it and keeps rolling his hips into hers and kissing her neck. Rey is hovering right _there_ and then his hand moves from behind her neck to lightly squeeze her breast. She feels the coil inside of her spring loose and then waves of pleasure are washing over her, making white flash behind her closed eyelids and making her breath stop in her throat.  
  
When she comes back to herself, Kylo is still lightly grinding into her. The way his breaths are coming fast tells Rey that he is on the verge of falling over the same peak she did. To help him along, she pulls lightly at the hair at the back of his head and moves her hips in time with his own. He gasps sharply.  
  
“Are- Are you sure?” he stutters out, hips slowing a bit. “You don’t have to do anything, I can go take care of this myself.”  
  
“I want this. Please, Kylo, let me feel you too.”  
  
He swears under his breath and dips his head to press kisses into her neck again before he suddenly tenses, hips stilling. Rey feels his teeth lightly brush over the junction of her neck and shoulder before his body sags. He just misses landing on top of her, moving at the last second to fall in the space between her body and the back of the couch. He’s breathing harshly.  
  
“You’re amazing…” he sighs.  
  
“So are you,” she replies, pressing a kiss to his jaw.  
  
He laughs and then starts to stand up.  
  
“I should go take care of this,” he gestures to the front of his pants.  
  
Rey sits up and nods. He brushes the hair from her face and then presses the same series of kisses to her forehead, cheeks, and lips before heading to the door.  
  
“Will I see you before you leave tomorrow?”  
  
“We leave at first light. Meet me in the dining room and we will walk to the hangar together.”  
  
“Okay, goodnight Kylo.”  
  
“Goodnight, sweetheart.”  
  
***  
  
When Rey walks into the dining room the next morning, she sees Mira, Aurelius, and Silas seated at the one end of the table near Kylo. There is another young man sitting next to Aurelius, swiping through a datapad. Rey assumes that this is Jex, the Knight that was watching Hux. Rey sits in the empty seat to the right of Kylo. He looks up from his breakfast to smile at her softly.  
  
“Kylo, we should get going,” Silas says. “He’s not going to like it that we didn’t leave as soon as we were summoned.”  
  
Rey looks down and feels her chest tighten at the thought of being left behind again. Then she feels a hand on her leg under the table. She looks up at Kylo and he nods slightly at her to reassure her that everything will be okay.  
  
They walk to the landing pad together, the Knights walking behind them a couple of paces to give them a modicum of privacy. Rey’s stomach is twisting around with nerves. What will happen to her if he doesn’t come back? She spent a lifetime waiting for her parents to come back to her on Jakku. She doesn’t even really remember what they looked like, only that her mother was the one who styled her hair into three buns. Which, she thinks, is why she left it like that for so long, she wanted to be easily recognizable should her parents return. But they never did and she spent thirteen years scavenging and starving for nothing. She can’t bear the thought that Kylo won’t return to her. Already in such a short amount of time, he has become one of the most important people to her. She isn’t ready to face another lifetime of waiting for someone to come back to her.  
  
“Rey? What is it? I can feel you thinking.”  
  
Rey jumps, forgetting where she was for a moment.  
  
“I-” she stops, not knowing how to finish her sentence. “I need you to come back for me.”  
  
His eyes soften and he pulls her into an embrace. Speaking lowly into her ear so the Knights won’t hear he says, “there is nothing in the entire galaxy that can or will keep me from returning to your side.”  
  
Rey turns her face more into his neck, feeling tears welling up in her eyes. When, at last, they pull away from each other he kisses her deeply and then slowly backs away from her. His hands hold hers until there is too much distance between them and then their arms fall back to their sides. Rey holds Kylo’s gaze the entire time it takes him to walk backwards up the ship’s ramp. He waits at the top of the ramp for a second, just staring at her. Finally, the ramp starts to close. When it shuts for good, a choked sob forces its way out of her mouth and into the thick air of Mustafar.  
  
After the ship has left, Rey remains standing on the landing pad for several minutes. Sighing, she turns back to the castle. She walks up to the hallways outside her rooms and she is about to go inside when she feels the urge to have something of Kylo’s with her. Keying into his rooms, she is hit with the remnants of his Force signature as she walks through to his bedroom. Stealing the pillow from his bed, she sees a wardrobe open just to the left of the bed. Inside are a few folded black tunics and pairs of pants. But, it is the navy blue sweater that draws her eye. Reaching out, she runs her hand over the soft material picturing him wearing it under his tunics. Lifting it from the shelf, she brings it up to her face and sniffs it lightly. Warmth rushes through her at the scent of him, comforting and rich with a slight note of the cleaner used on her clothes as well.  
  
Rey heads back to her rooms, planning on crawling into bed and not getting out of it until he returns to her. However, those plans are slightly derailed when, upon walking into her living room, she finds another bouquet of flowers on her table. There is a small folded up piece of flimsi on the table next to the vase. Opening it, she sees swooping letters in black ink. Beginning to read, she finds herself tearing up again at the words he left behind for her.  
  
“_Rey,_” it reads. “_I know how much flowers and plants mean to you, so I wanted to make you your very own garden here. I will miss you with every fiber of my being until I am returned to you. Not even Snoke could keep me away for very long. I promise you, Rey. There is a comm unit on your bedside table for you to contact me with. Do not hesitate to leave me messages every second of every day I am not with you. Rey, I love spending time with you, whether that be our hours in the training room or our time in the library curled up together. I especially enjoyed what we did last night and I look forward to a repeat if that is what you want. There is nothing I want more, my love, than to be at your side in all things. Facing the galaxy with you would be the height of privilege for me, I wouldn’t ask for anything else. I will see you soon, sweetheart._”  
  
Rey stumbles blindly to her bedroom, reaching for the comm on her table. Sending him a message that she misses him too and that she will be waiting for him, she climbs into bed with his pillow and his sweater and falls asleep quickly.  
  
***  
  
The next week without Kylo drags for Rey, she spends her days training and reading much like she did with him. She sends him messages daily about what she has read and the things she has done during the day.  
  
Rey is in the library, reading about the Sith Lords of old. Her interest is piqued at a story titled “The Jedi and the Sith: the Love of Darth Revan and Bastila Shan.” It was written thousands of years ago by a Jedi Master Gnost-Dural. She turns the datapad on, planning on skimming through the story. But, the story of a Jedi turned Sith Lord falling in love with a Jedi who was tempted to fall to the dark is all too similar to hers and Kylo’s story. She wonders if they are destined to follow in Revan’s and Bastila’s footsteps. Are they destined to be pulled apart too? Will she have to spend years and years waiting again?  
  
The next thing she knows, her stomach growls and she realizes that she had been sitting in the same chair for many hours. Getting up, she makes her way to the kitchen to get something to eat for dinner. Sitting down, she takes a couple of bites of her food. She is still thinking about the story she read when she feels the absence of sound that means she and Kylo are connected. He is sitting down with his head in his hands but he looks up as soon as he realizes that she is with him.  
  
“Rey,” he breathes, “I’ve missed you so much.”  
  
She stands from her seat and makes her way over to where he is sitting. She takes one of his hands in hers, desperate to feel him after so much time apart.  
  
“What’s wrong?”  
  
“Snoke is sending us on a mission. He wants to start moving coreward, we have the Outer Rim for the most part. The Knights and I are to lead divisions through the Mid-Rim, getting planets to our side. I don’t know how long it will be before I can come back to Mustafar. I can’t let him think anything is wrong. I think he may suspect that I’m hiding something, he didn’t push too hard when he came across my mental shields.”  
  
Terror grips Rey as she thinks about what would happen if Snoke figures out their plan before she can get to Kylo. His hands sliding around her jaw brings her back to herself.  
  
“Shh, my love, I wouldn’t let him harm you.”  
  
She nods, believing him. After all, he had _never_ lied to her.  
  
“Stay,” she begs him, clutching him to her as if she could will the Force bond to stay open for as long as she wants. “Stay with me tonight. I’m so tired of being alone.”  
  
He presses light kisses to the top of her head and lets her lead them to her bedroom. They both crawl into her bed and she is pulled into his tight embrace. She can feel herself slipping under and her last thought before she succumbs to sleep is about Kylo and how safe she feels beside him.  
  
In the morning, her bed is empty and the space next to her is cold.


	7. Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo deals with the strange connection growing between him and Rey. (Kylo POV)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter kind of got away from me so I had to split it into three separate chapters... For the next chapters, I am going to be using Kylo's POV. After that, I will be alternating within chapters between Kylo's and Rey's POV's. The next chapter should be updated before next weekend. I keep meaning to update more frequently/ with a real schedule but then I don't have a plan and that schedule falls apart. But, for the next five or so chapters, I have written down some plans for where I want the story to go. So, there should be more consistent updating on my part. I want to thank everyone who has read, commented, given kudos, and bookmarked!!

Kylo Ren, the attack dog of Supreme Leader Snoke, has never been so mystified. The scavenger, _Rey_, stands over his prone form. Looking up into her face, which is twisted in anger and sorrow, Kylo can feel the waves of murderous intent rolling off her small body. It’s glorious! If only she had agreed to be his apprentice… But, instead, she slashed his face open and they are now being pulled apart by the crack in Starkiller Base’s earth. He watches her run back to the traitor, FN-2187, as he slumps back to the ground. Kylo doesn’t quite know what he’s waiting for, maybe for the abyss to swallow him as well. It would certainly prevent Snoke from punishing him for letting the girl go. He closes his eyes and waits.  
  
When he opens his eyes, he recognizes the sterility of the medbay aboard the _Finalizer_. There are wires and drips attached to his body. A silver droid comes in and starts, in its monotone voice, to give him a summary of what happened to him.  
  
“Sir, you sustained a blaster bolt to the twelfth rib on your left side, a burn to your right shoulder, and a large laceration from the top of your nose to just underneath your collarbone,” ZT-160 recites from his chart. “We have grafted a synthetic skin to your facial injury that will heal on its own in several weeks leaving no scar.”  
  
“No,” he cuts in, “leave the scar.”  
  
“Sir, that is _highly_ irregular. I insist that you leave the skin in place until your body has healed sufficiently.”  
  
Frustrated, he moves his hand through the air, sending the useless droid crashing into the wall opposite him. The noise brings in one of the other nurse droids.  
  
“Find me a droid to remove this,” he gestures to his face, “as soon as it is possible to.”  
  
The droid backs into the hallway again, leaving him alone with his thoughts. He doesn’t remember when he was brought to the medbay. He only remembers lying in the snow on Starkiller Base, still reeling from the pain of his injuries, the lingering effects of the Dark Side energy he had called upon to fight the traitor and Rey, and the onslaught of guilt and pain brought on by watching his father fall from the bridge. That pain still lingers, as does the feeling of his father’s hand on his now damaged face.  
  
Suddenly, rage swells within him. Snoke _promised_ him that killing Han Solo would complete his training. He thought that meant he could finally be free. Snoke promised him freedom, all those years ago. Freedom from his parents and uncle being afraid of him. Freedom from the meaningless constraints the Jedi liked to impose over their emotions and abilities. He has always known he was powerful in the Force, more so than the others at Luke’s Academy. He thought that by joining Snoke, he would finally be able to be who he wanted to be. He would be free to pursue power, to hunger for knowledge, and to use the Force however he saw fit. Instead, he’s been kept on a leash like an animal, only allowed to do what Snoke wants or needs him to do. Punished by Snoke when he crossed some arbitrary line he had no idea even existed in the first place.  
  
He’s thankful he has the Knights. Most of them have been by his side since his early days at the Academy. Kylo knows that most of them only stay with the First Order because they are loyal to him and would follow him wherever he went. The others, the ones that were brought to the Knights of Ren by Snoke, their loyalty is conditional. They stay because they want power in one form or another. He knows that should he try to leave the First Order, only those that were loyal to him would follow.  
  
***  
  
The doors of the elevator open in front of him and he walks forward into Snoke’s throne room. Hux, the little cretin, is standing in front of Snoke.  
  
“Go, General Hux, oversee the fleet’s movements. The faster we take care of the Resistance, the faster we can push into the Core,” Snoke’s booming voice fills the room.  
  
Hux turns and walks past him, giving a little smirk. Snoke’s laugh echoes in his ears as he kneels on the floor in the middle of the blood red room. The Praetorian Guards fan out around the room, ready to go to battle to protect the Supreme Leader.  
  
“You wonder why I keep a rabid cur in such a place of power? A cur’s weakness, properly manipulated, can be a sharp tool.”  
  
Kylo gets the sense that Snoke isn’t just talking about Hux. He knows that Snoke thinks of him as an aggressive animal to be used. He knows that he’s a tool, no better than a good wrench in a mechanic’s toolbox.  
  
“How’s your wound?” Snoke asks, though Kylo knows he’s not actually interested in his well-being.  
  
“It’s nothing.”  
  
Snoke isn’t convinced. He hums and starts to get off of his throne to stalk toward him.  
  
“The mighty Kylo Ren. When I found you, I saw what all masters live to see. _Raw_, untamed power. And beyond that, something truly special. The potential of your bloodline. A new _Vader_.”  
  
Kylo’s heart beats rapidly in his chest. He knows how Snoke works. Snoke always starts his speeches with honeyed words, they always sound like compliments. But, they are never meant to be. He waits for the other shoe to drop, for Snoke to express his disappointment and his disgust.  
  
“Now, I fear I was mistaken.”  
  
Kylo feels that pit of misery inside of him open up wider. He doesn’t know what more Snoke wants from him.  
  
“I’ve given everything I have to you. To the Dark Side.” His voice sounds desperate through his helmet.  
  
Snoke’s barely controlled fury echoes in his words, “Take that _ridiculous_ thing off.”  
  
Kylo reaches up and presses the button under his chin. The hydraulics hiss and his helmet comes up and over his face. His hair falls over his face and he knows he looks like a pitiful little thing kneeling in front of his master.  
  
“Yes, there it is. You have too much of your father’s heart in you, young Solo.”  
  
“I killed Han Solo,” now he is angry too. “When the moment came, I didn’t hesitate.”  
  
“And look at you, the deed split your spirit to the bone.”  
  
Kylo raises his chin defiantly. Distantly, he remembers his mother doing the same thing all those years ago in the Senate Chamber. How the slight turn of her head told you all you needed to know about what she thought of something another Senator said. But, Snoke isn’t afraid of him like his mother’s colleagues were both in awe and fearful of her.  
  
“You were _unbalanced_, bested by a girl who had never held a lightsaber! You FAILED!”  
  
At that, he springs to his feet, anger and rage welling in his veins. But before he can even do anything, Snoke blasts him off his feet with lightning. He knows better than to make a noise, no matter how much he wants to scream at the feeling of pure electricity zipping through his body. The Praetorian Guards move into a ready position. But, Snoke isn’t done yelling at him.  
  
“Skywalker lives. The seed of the Jedi Order lives. As long as it does, hope lives in the galaxy.”  
  
Kylo climbs to his feet, he will not just stay on the ground at Snoke’s feet and take it this time. Snoke turns and heads back to his throne. He sits down and delivers the final blow.  
  
“I thought you would be the one to snuff it out. Alas, you’re no Vader. You’re just a _child_ in a mask.”  
  
Rage threatens to overflow. Kylo wants to scream at him, to wipe that expression off his horrible, scarred face. But, he knows that he can't. So, he picks up his cloak and helmet and heads to the elevator, Snoke’s words echoing in his head.  
  
_You’re just a child in a mask._  
  
He is so angry. He breathes out harshly and he can feel his eye muscle twitching. He looks down to his helmet, hearing those words over and over again. Then, something new enters his mind.  
  
_That happens when you’re being hunted by a creature in a mask_.  
  
The girl had said that to him when he asked her why she wanted to kill him. It had hurt him, strangely, to hear those words come out of her mouth. He had felt the need to prove to her that he was human.  
  
With those thoughts rushing through his head, he smashes his fist into the elevator wall. It brings him immense satisfaction to see the helmet crack and splinter into pieces. When he exits the elevator, he leaves the slightly smoking pieces on the floor. He shouts at the two officers waiting to ready his ship, he wants to go home.  
  
***  
  
The rivers of lava on Mustafar greet him like an old friend and he feels almost at peace when his grandfather’s castle comes into view. He guides his _Silencer_ to his preferred landing pad. Hopping out of the ship, he makes his way inside to his personal medbay. He needs to get that itchy synthetic skin off as soon as possible. He calls out for a droid to remove it and sits down on an exam table. The droid starts whirring around him, taking it off.  
  
He sits there thinking about Snoke’s instructions. He knows he has been all but banished from the First Order fleet. It hurts a little. The _Finalizer_ was comforting to him as well, despite Hux being in command. He enjoyed the time spent with the Fleet. The adventurer and scholar in him was always satisfied by travelling through the galaxy. Splitting his time between the Fleet and Mustafar has served him well in the past. Normally, he would’ve been content to stay here on Mustafar. It’s become home to him in the last couple of years. He still remembers the day Snoke had told him about it. It was in disrepair when he first arrived. He made it his home, the only place he felt free from Snoke’s presence. But, knowing that Snoke sent him here to “deepen his connection to the Dark Side” makes him angry. He knows he’s being treated like an errant child who needed a time-out.  
  
Suddenly, all of the sound in the room disappears. He holds up his hand to shove the little droid away from his face. He turns his head a little bit and is surprised to see the scavenger sitting across the room from him. She holds something up and he realizes too late that it’s a blaster. The shot goes off as she pulls the trigger and he hunches forward preparing for pain. His body jerks a little when he finds no wound. When he looks back up, she is gone.  
  
He hurries into the corridor outside the medbay and slides to a stop, twisting around. He hears someone breathing behind him and turns. _There she is_, he thinks. Her face is contorted in anger, but he can see the confusion in her eyes that mirrors his. He thinks this is his chance. The Resistance had the map in their possession after Starkiller. She knows where Skywalker is.  
  
“You will bring Luke Skywalker to me,” he stretches his arm out, using the Mind Trick.  
  
When she doesn’t react, he drops his arm. His mouth twists in annoyance.  
  
“You’re not doing this, the effort would kill you. Can you see my surroundings?”  
  
The girl cuts in as he turns around and looks at the hallway he is standing in, “You’re going to pay for what you did!”  
  
He continues as if she said nothing, “I can’t see yours. Just you. So, no...This is something else.”  
  
She turns around quickly as if she heard a noise and then turns to face him once more. He knows from her expression that his uncle is standing behind her.  
  
“Luke,” he says, ready to ask her more questions about him.  
  
But, he doesn’t get the chance to say anything else to her. Sound drops back in and she disappears. He runs up to the library, searching the shelves for anything that might tell him what just happened. He grabs datapads as he walks along then brings the whole stack to a table in the middle of the room. He spends hours going through the texts, finding nothing. Distantly, he hears the doors swish open and footsteps echo in the quiet of the library.  
  
“Kylo, it’s dinner time, the others were wondering where you were.”  
  
Of course it’s Aurelius that came. They had always been close. At the Academy, he seemed to be the only one who was like him; quiet, reserved, and powerful in the Force. Still, it surprised him when he, Silas, Mira, and Jex decided to follow him after that night when the others at the Academy thought he had killed their Master.  
  
“I’m coming. Just trying to figure something out.”  
  
He hears Aurelius step closer and turns his head to look at his oldest friend. Aurelius’ blue eyes scan the datapads and their titles before humming softly to himself.  
  
“What is it, Kylo?” he asks.  
  
“The scavenger, Rey, I _saw_ her.”  
  
Aurelius looks up from the cluttered table at that, “What do you mean you saw her?”  
  
“I mean, I was getting that kriffing skin thing removed from my face and all of the sound dropped from the room. She was right there sitting in front of me. She tried to shoot me with her blaster but it didn’t work. I felt nothing. We spoke. I could’ve reached out and touched her, she looked so solid. But, it wasn’t a Force projection, that would’ve killed her. Even I don’t have the kind of power to project myself across the galaxy. I don’t know what it was.”  
  
Aurelius looked thoughtful for a moment, “There has to be information somewhere. Maybe in the old archives from the Empire. I can comm Tiberius and have him look in the records kept on Coruscant.”  
  
“No,” he says, standing from his chair, “don’t comm him. I’d like to keep the information here. I don’t want Snoke finding out yet. Not until I know what it is.”  
  
Aurelius nods his head once and then turns to walk out of the library. After putting the texts back in their rightful place, Kylo follows him to the dining room where the others are already seated. He eats his food in silence, listening to the sound of utensils hitting dishes and the chatter the others are making. When dinner has finished, he is the first to stand up. He walks up to his rooms in a daze, still thinking about the girl and the strange connection between them.  
  
***  
  
The past week has been the weirdest Kylo has ever encountered. He had connected with the girl again while he was watching the stormtroopers train. He was so stunned by her expression. It was the same one she had that night on Starkiller Base. That look of pure hatred and anger. He was so caught off guard that he blurted out exactly what he was thinking. Then, she said he was a monster. Kylo Ren could not fault the scavenger, _Rey_, for saying so. He agreed with her. How could he be anything else? What kind of person killed their own father? He was a monster plain and simple. He doesn't care what Snoke thought about his guilt. The time spent on Mustafar had changed him. He’s tired of being kept under Snoke’s heel, tired of being restrained. He wants the freedom that Snoke promised him when he was younger, when he was Ben. He just needs to wait a little longer. The Force had shown him visions all those years ago. It was his destiny to remake the empire that his grandfather helped create. At least, he thought it was. Years spent under Snoke’s thumb has made him doubt the Force.  
  
He’s spent more time in the library searching with Aurelius for records of anything similar to the connection he shares with Rey. Especially in the wake of the last time they were connected. There was water on his face after the connection broke, like he was actually transported in some way to wherever she and Skywalker were. He doesn’t understand it.  
  
Kylo’s in his room, he decided to leave the library at a reasonable hour and actually try to get a good night’s sleep. His father’s face keeps haunting him. Every time he closes his eyes, he is back on that bridge on Starkiller Base. His lightsaber glowing red in the sudden darkness caused by the sun’s energy being used to power the weapon. His father, older than he remembered, walking toward him. The warmth of his father’s hand on his face before he fell over the side into the depth below. The shot to his side from Chewie.  
  
Pulling his tunic and sweater over his head, he walks to the other side of the room to grab a different shirt to put on for bed. Before he can reach out and touch the stacks of shirts in his wardrobe, the sound in the room disappears. Kylo sighs inwardly, he’s not in the mood right now, no matter how much she intrigues him.  
  
“I’d rather not do this now,” Rey speaks first, sounding just as done and tired as he does.  
  
He smiles a little, before replying to her, “Yeah, me too.”  
  
He schools his expression before he turns around. As he does, she starts to speak again.  
  
“Why did you hate your father?” she looks down immediately after seeing he isn’t wearing a shirt. “Do you have something, a cowl, that you could put on?”  
  
He doesn’t answer, waiting for her to get back to her original question. He has a feeling that she has more to say.  
  
“Why did you hate your father? Give me an honest answer!”  
  
He walks toward her, unsure exactly why.  
  
“You had a father who loved you! He gave a damn about you!”  
  
“I didn’t hate him,” he doesn’t know why he’s telling her this. She could never understand, could she?  
  
“Then why?”  
  
“Why what?” he asks, watching closely the way she doesn’t want to give a voice to what he did. “Why what? Say it!”  
  
“Why did you- why did you kill him? I don’t understand.”  
  
“No? Your parents threw you away like garbage-”  
  
“They didn’t!” she’s angry, he knows it.  
  
“They did. But you can’t stop needing them. It’s your greatest weakness. Looking for them everywhere. In Han Solo, now in Skywalker.” He has to make her understand. He knows that Skywalker will fail her like he failed him. “Did he tell you what happened that night?”  
  
Her response is immediate and forceful, “Yes!”  
  
He wants to laugh. If Skywalker had been truthful, he doubts that Rey would have accepted it so easily. He needs to tell her, needs her to know what her precious Luke Skywalker did to him.  
  
“He had sensed my power, as he senses yours, and he feared it…” he tells her about what it felt like to wake up to the green of his uncle’s lightsaber over his head. He needs her to know, he doesn’t know precisely why.  
  
“Liar,” she says half-heartedly.  
  
He steps even closer to her. She’s so close to seeing the truth of it all. He knows how powerful she is, even untrained as she was when they fought in the snow. He knows that Skywalker went into hiding after the night at the Academy. He knew how his uncle felt about the Dark Side of the Force. For Luke Skywalker, it was something to be feared. Skywalker believed that the Force was to be used for good, only. He knows that his uncle must be terrified by the raw power that Rey possesses. How could he not be?  
  
“Let the past die,” he says to her finally. “Kill it if you have to. It’s the only way to become what you’re meant to be.”  
  
Then, their strange connection broke.  
  
***  
  
Kylo didn’t end up sleeping after the connection with Rey broke. He was still too keyed up to be able to relax. So, he decided to read for a little bit. Settling into one of the chairs in his living room, he had reached for one of the many datapads littered around the vicinity. He had read this one before, some old text from the time of the Clone Wars. But, he hadn’t minded reading it again for the hundredth time. He had always enjoyed that era. It fascinated him how willingly blind the Jedi had been to the Sith Lord literally hiding in plain sight. In all their great knowledge of the Force, they failed to recognize the threat until it was too late for them.  
  
Kylo likes to think that if he wasn’t as powerful in the Force as he was, and if his family weren’t who they were, he would have been a scholar at one of the thousands of universities around the galaxy. He liked flying well enough, but he didn’t think he had it in him to be one of the pilots who flew deep into the Unknown Regions to find uninhabited worlds or hidden planets. He wanted to surround himself with books and knowledge.  
  
With a sigh, Kylo sets the datapad aside and stands up so he can stretch his neck out after looking down for so long. As he is rolling his head back, the sound in the room drops out. He stands up straighter in surprise, the bond had never opened twice in one day. Rey appears in front of him. She’s sitting in front of him wrapped in a rough looking brown blanket. There are tears on her face and she seems to be genuinely upset, this time not at him. Confused and slightly afraid that something terrible has happened to her, he sits back down in his chair.  
  
“What’s wrong?” he needs to know, needs confirmation that she is okay.  
  
“I-” she stops, then starts again. “I went to the cave. The cave beneath the island. After our… conversation, I needed answers. It had called out to me before, when I was with Luke. So, I went there. I-I fell in-into some water. It was so _cold_. I have never felt cold like that, ever.  
  
“There was a mirror on the wall. I touched it and then I just saw myself. It was like there were thousands of me, all standing in a line. When I moved the others did the same thing half a second after I did. I had no idea what was happening. It was like I was in a giant chamber. I could hear the other ones moving after I did, it echoed. I almost didn’t know which one was the real me.  
  
“I should’ve felt trapped or panicked. But, I didn’t. This didn’t go on forever, I knew it was leading somewhere. That at the end it would show me what I came to see. I heard someone call my name and I asked to see my parents. I thought I saw two people walking toward me. But, when I touched the wall again, all I saw was me. I thought I’d find answers here. I was wrong. I had never felt so alone.”  
  
His heart breaks for her and he feels the need to reassure her that she isn’t alone. She has him, if she wants him.  
  
“You’re not alone,” he tells her earnestly.  
  
She looks up into his eyes and replies back to him just as determined as he is, “Neither are you. It isn’t too late.”  
  
She sits up a little straighter and her hand hesitantly comes out from under the blanket. She reaches for him. He removes his glove and reaches for her. Their fingers brush across space and time and he is transported to a different room in his grandfather’s castle. He can see the two of them curled up together on a couch in the library. Then, he sees the two of them on a planet he has never seen, fighting at each other’s backs. She’s wielding a double-bladed lightsaber, the blades two different colors. He is in awe of the way the blue and red of the plasma whirl around her in a dizzying purple. The world crumbles around him and then he feels her at his side as they walk down a hallway on a Star Destroyer. People bow to them, to _her_, as they walk by. Their voices low and reverent as they all say _Empress_.  
  
He comes back to himself as quickly as he fell into the vision. Her eyes are just as wide as he knows his are. He sees her open her mouth and draw in a breath, readying to speak. And then, he is staring at the wall of his living room.  
  
***  
  
Kylo runs down to hallways of the castle, socks sliding on the tile floors as he races to the other wing of the castle. He needs to find Aurelius! The visions he saw, the way Rey’s eyes glittered in the light of the dimly lit room she was in, and the way her fingers felt over his play on a loop in his head. He can’t stop thinking about her. He finds his way to the hallway where the Knight’s rooms are and bangs his fist over and over again on Aurelius’ door. He hears the door behind him slide open and he turns around to see Mira and Silas in their nightclothes staring at him like he grew three heads.  
  
“What. Are. You. Doing?” Mira says through clenched teeth. “It is the middle of the night. Some of us were trying to sleep!”  
  
Kylo throws a rude gesture her way as he turns around to face Aurelius’ now open door. He also is in his nightclothes. Not bothering to ask permission, Kylo barges in his room. He hears Mira and Silas follow him into Aurelius’ living room.  
  
“Yes, please come in and make yourselves comfortable,” Aurelius says dryly.  
  
Kylo paces around the room, quickly. He doesn’t know how to tell them what happened. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he faces his oldest friends.  
  
“I touched her.”  
  
Mira snorts under her breath, “You _what_?”  
  
“Her hand. I touched her hand. Rey. We have this weird connection. I can see her and she can see me. But, tonight I touched her hand.”  
  
“How long has this been going on, Kylo? Why didn’t you tell me?” Mira looks concerned. “Is it a trick? Could the Resistance have done this to gain intel?”  
  
“No, she’s not with the Resistance. It’s been happening for the past week or so. Aurelius and I have been looking for answers, but nothing. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want _you-know-who_ to find out.” The way he stressed those words, they all knew he meant Snoke.  
  
“Well, if I didn’t know any better, I would say it sounds like a Force Bond. I’ve read Jedi histories. There have been a few throughout the centuries,” Silas says slowly.  
  
Kylo feels clarity all of a sudden. Of course it was a Force Bond! How could he have forgotten his history?  
  
“A Force Bond… so, will it grow stronger?”  
  
Silas nods, “Yes. Think of it like a muscle. With training and discipline, it becomes stronger.”  
  
Kylo nods at Silas’ explanation. He starts to tune the Knights out as he feels a weird pull in the back of his mind. At first, he’s afraid that it’s Snoke calling him back to the Fleet. But it feels warmer, healthy where Snoke feels cold like decay. He follows the string in his mind to that point and then he hears Rey’s voice in his head.  
  
"Yes," she says.  
  
Kylo is confused, he doesn’t remember asking her anything.  
  
"Yes, what?" he replies back.  
  
"I need a teacher. You once said you could show me the ways of the Force. I’m saying yes. I’m saying that I’m going to come to you. Skywalker can give me nothing."  
  
Kylo feels his heart leap. Then he hears Mira calling his name.  
  
“Kylo, are you listening?”  
  
He holds up his hand, wanting her to wait so he can reply to Rey. He’ll have her meet him on Takodana. Where they first met. That way they can travel safely back to Mustafar. He sends her the coordinates and then turns his attention back to his friends.  
  
“It was Rey. She was in my head just now. She says she wants me to teach her. She’s coming here.”  
__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a couple of things:  
  
The Resistance is, for right now, in hiding. There was no hyperspace tracking in this b/c I need the Resistance later. They will make an appearance later but for now just assume they safely escaped from the First Order!  
From the beginning, I envisioned the Knights as being mostly loyal to Kylo. I had always liked the headcanon that the Knights were partially made up of some of Luke's former students. I also want Kylo to have positive support. So, I want them to actually have personalities and the main core of the Knights to interact with Kylo like siblings and really close friends would.


	8. ...And Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo brings Rey to him and they spend time together before he gets recalled to Snoke's side. (Kylo POV, again)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!! This chapter will be like the last chapter where it will be in Kylo's POV with some scenes that were originally in Rey's POV earlier in the story. Next chapter should be posted within the next two weeks sometime, I don't have an exact date yet.

Kylo guides his _Upsilon_-class command shuttle to a standstill. Takodana looks more or less the same as it had a month or so ago when he was here with the division of stormtroopers to find the droid carrying the map to Skywalker. He doesn’t know when Rey was supposed to arrive, they never established a time frame. He hopes he doesn’t have to wait too long. It could get ugly if someone finds a First Order ship in the jungle. He doesn’t want trouble, that could alert Snoke to his presence and that’s the last thing he needs. He can’t even imagine what Snoke would do to him if he found out that Kylo had left Mustafar to meet with a member of the Resistance who was basically the closest thing the galaxy had to a new generation of Jedi.  
  
The whirring of an approaching ship puts him on edge. A tiny shuttle without any insignia lands a few paces away from his ship. He can’t see the pilot so he decides to lower the ramp and get out of his ship. That way, if it’s a hostile force, he has a way to escape. As he reaches the bottom of the ramp, the hatch on the other ship opens and Rey climbs out to stand across from him. He feels her Force signature wash over him. It feels like sunshine on the warmest planet and a breath of fresh air all at once. He can’t believe she wants to join him. She walks toward him, slowly.  
  
“Why did you tell me to come here? I would’ve thought you would send me right to your star destroyer.”  
  
He’s a little surprised that she doesn’t know why he would have her come here. Did she really think he would let her just arrive on a star destroyer without any sort of safety precautions in place? He almost wants to laugh imagining what Hux’s face would look like if she just landed her ship in one of the _Finalizer_’s hangars. He would probably explode!  
  
“Don’t you remember? This is where we first met.”  
  
Rey looks around for a moment as if lost in her memories.  
  
“Where’s your helmet? We’re on a populated planet full of people who probably don’t like you. I would’ve thought you would have it on.”  
  
“I destroyed it.”  
  
He doesn’t want to talk about the meeting with Snoke. Those words still echo in his head from time to time. So, he just turns to walk back onto his ship. He realizes that she isn’t following him so he stops and turns.  
  
“Are you coming?”  
  
Rey seems startled like she is unsure of what to do. But, then she nods and follows him into the ship. She sits next to him and he senses that she doesn’t quite know if he needs her help or not. He decides to throw her a bone and give her some minor task. He has her turn the cloaking on even though he could do it by himself. She leans back into her seat like she is trying to make herself invisible. Again, he senses her confusion. He doesn’t want her to be confused. She has a right to know where they are going. For all she knows, this could have been a trap.  
  
“We’re going to my grandfather’s castle on Mustafar. I’ve been stationed there by Supreme Leader Snoke in order for me to become stronger in the Dark Side of the Force. That is where you will learn.”  
  
She looks thoughtful before replying, “Will you teach me both the Light and Dark?”  
  
He nods, “If I know it, it’s yours. I will not hold you back from learning whatever you want. Ultimately, I do have hope that you will open yourself up to the Dark Side. You could be stronger in the Force if you do not shy away from the darkness inside of you. That is the mistake that Skywalker made.”  
  
“And how do you know there is darkness in me?”  
  
“I’ve seen it,” he says, remembering their fight on Starkiller, “that night in the forest. After you sliced my face. You stood over me and I could feel it rolling off you. I could tell you wanted to kill me, wanted that more than anything. But, then the earth split apart and you ran.”  
  
The darkness had flowed through her. He could feel it in the air. She has such a natural affinity for the Force. Like him, it comes as easy as breathing to her. And he knows that together, they would be unstoppable. But, he meant what he said. He will not force her to choose one way or the other. He doesn’t want her to feel the same conflict that he does.  
  
He turns to her and wants to give her a way out. He knows this is a lot to process. But, she declines the offer of a bed. Instead, she asks for food. After looking through the food storage for almost a minute overthinking the options, he just decides to bring it all to her and have her decide. She smiles at him and he feels the tips of his ears reddening.  
  
When he goes to sit back in the captain’s chair, she grabs his arm and asks him to stay with her. So, he watches her eat package after package before they return to their seats for the rest of the journey.  
  
***  
  
Again, Kylo feels like he’s having an out of body experience. He’s been in sort of a daze ever since he left Rey’s room over two hours ago. They had arrived at the castle without a fuss. He had been greeted by Niney in the front hall. He gave her the tour of their wing of the castle, showing her the doors to the training rooms, kitchen, and library before continuing up to the residential wing. Then, in a purely impulsive act, he had kissed her on the forehead before returning to his rooms across the hall. He changed into his nightclothes and sat down on one of the small chairs in his living room. He doesn’t know how he is supposed to sleep after a day like this. He feels too wired. But, he knows that training begins tomorrow and he needs to be well-rested. So, he forces himself to crawl into his bed and under the covers. Sighing, he rolls over what seems like a million times, trying to find the right position. Finally, after forty-five minutes have passed since he lay down, Kylo falls asleep. For the first time since he was a child, there were no nightmares.  
  
***  
  
She’s been with him for a month. Each day with her is better than the last. When he wakes up, he decides to do something for her. But what? What could he give her? Then, a memory comes to mind from when he was a small boy.  
  
_His father, still young with a touch of grey in his hair, carries a large package into the dining room where he and his mother are eating their breakfast. His mother’s eyes widen when she sees what Han had brought her. Standing up, she walks up to his dad and kisses him on the cheek while taking the package from his hands. She turns to him and he sees flowers bursting with color. His mother is smiling so brightly and his father ruffles his dark mop of hair before sitting across from him. Dad turns to him and says ‘You always give flowers on an important anniversary, kid.’_  
  
The memory hurts a little. Remembering a time before they sent him away always does. But, now he knows what to get Rey. He’ll get her some flowers. Desert child that she is, she probably never saw many flowers on Jakku. He’ll have a droid get some and deliver them to her rooms before she wakes up. She deserves some color beyond volcanic rock and the bright orange of the lava outside.  
  
***  
  
Kylo wants to die. He wants the lava river outside his window to swallow him whole. Everything was going fine. He had given her the flowers and she loved them. Then, they had started working on Force abilities. He thinks he reassured Rey that she is exactly where she was meant to be and that the Force couldn’t have made a mistake with her. They were sparring like they usually did. He had gotten her to the ground but then she managed to flip them over. He had never seen anything like her. She was so _beautiful_. Her hair was falling out of the bun she had put it in and the exertion had made her face bright red. The Force was singing around them. He could feel the waves of energy pouring off both of them. And then, he felt himself hardening. She moved on top of him and he couldn’t move away in time. She looked so confused as he practically ran from the room.  
  
Now, he’s in the shower trying to will it away. He’s tried thinking about Snoke’s nasty face, jumping into a Sarlacc pit, and eating some of the grossest foods he’s ever had. But, nothing will erase Rey’s face from his mind. He can only see the way her nose wrinkles slightly while she’s trying to concentrate, the way her eyes light up when she laughs, and the way her legs looked when she straddled him earlier. _Nope_, he thinks, _don’t think about her legs_. But, it’s too late. Sighing heavily, he wraps his hand around himself and starts moving. At the first pull, a groan slips out of his mouth. He lets himself imagine what could have happened if he hadn’t run away from the training room. Would she have continued to move her hips against his? Would she have put her hand in his pants and touched him the way he’s touching himself now? He breathes faster, feeling like he'd run for miles and miles. He feels himself nearing the end and decides to just let go. He hears the imaginary Rey in his head say his name and then he’s coming apart. His knees feel weak and he forces himself to stay standing. When the haze clears from his mind, he rinses himself off and climbs out of the shower. After getting dressed, he decides to go to the dining room. Maybe he’ll get something to eat.  
  
Upon entering the dining room, he sees Rey sitting at the table eating dinner. He wants to immediately turn around and go back to his rooms. But, he makes himself go sit down next to her. She asks him if he’s okay and it takes everything in him to remain calm and collected. He can’t let her know all the dirty things he thought about her. When she’s done eating she asks him what they’re going to do now. He gives her the option to do whatever she wants for the rest of the day. She decides to follow him to the library. He passes their usual table and goes and sits in his favorite corner. They sit on couches across from each other. He watches as she starts to fall asleep.  
  
Later, after he has read further into the text Aurelius found about Force Bonds, he goes to Rey’s side and tries to gently wake her up to no avail. Slowly, he picks her up and carries her back up to her room. He lays her down on her bed and draws the covers over her to keep her warm in the night. He stops for a moment before standing up. He brushes her hair off her face and his fingers linger on her cheek. He shakes his head and stands up. Leaning down to leave a kiss on her cheeks, he tells her “good night” and walks back to his room.  
  
When he is laying in his own bed later, he thinks about his visions. He’s seen her standing by his side and he knows that she saw something similar. She had shown him parts of her vision. The two of them on the bridge of a star destroyer. He’s curious about that part of her vision because the ship in her vision didn’t look like the _Finalizer_ or the _Supremacy_, the only two ships in the First Order fleet that he’s been stationed on. Maybe they move to another ship in the Fleet? He wonders how long it will take before they can get rid of Snoke. He's worried that they won't have enough time to train.  
  
His thoughts turn to Rey before he falls asleep. He’s so happy that she came to be with him. He doesn’t know how to describe the incandescent happiness he feels when he is in her presence. He’s never felt this way before. He wants to spend the rest of his life with her. He sits up as that last thought runs through his head. He had always accepted that he would rebuild the Empire with Rey by his side while he did it. He just thought it would be more like an apprentice-master relationship. He never could have predicted this feeling. _Is this love?_ he thinks to himself. Could he be in love with Rey? They haven’t known each other very long. He’s never been in love before, how should he know what it is? He decides to talk to Rey about it tomorrow. Or maybe Silas and Aurelius could help him? Silas definitely knows what love feels like. He and Mira had been together forever.  
  
***  
  
It takes everything in him not to strangle Hux where he stands. Kylo had been about to tell Rey how he feels when the slimy, little irritant stormed into the room and demanded to know what was going on. As if Hux had any right to demand things from him! He is not an underling to be ordered around; he is the Master of the Knights of Ren, the apprentice of the Supreme Leader, and the Heir to Darth Vader. But, he has to play this carefully. It’s imperative that Snoke not find out about Rey. He can’t give Hux any reason to think this is anything out of the ordinary. If Hux thinks this was Snoke’s plan, he won’t dare challenge him on it. Hux, for all his bravado, is terrified of losing his status within the First Order. If he were to question Snoke’s orders, he might find himself dying prematurely.  
  
He watches Hux leave the room and turns to Jex.  
  
“See that he doesn’t tell the Supreme Leader that I have her here with me. If Snoke figures out what I’m planning, we’re all dead.”  
  
Jex nods and follows behind Hux. Of all of his Knights, Jex excelled in hiding in plain sight. If anyone could follow Hux and watch him from the shadows, it was Jex. Kylo turns back to the table, but when he does he notices Rey still staring across the room at the Knights.  
  
“Who are they?”  
  
“Some of my Knights. I don’t want you to worry about them. They are completely loyal to me. They’ve been with me longer than I have been with Snoke.”  
  
He turns and nods to the remaining Knights, signaling them to take their helmets off. Rey needs to get to know them as well. Although, he thinks she won’t have any problem getting along with his oldest friends. People are drawn to her like moths to a flame. Mira walks forward with Silas behind her to stand closer to Rey. Then, she smiles at her, excited to finally meet her.  
  
“Hi, you must be Rey! I’m Mira! It’s so nice to finally meet you! Kylo hasn’t told us much about you except that you decided to join him. Have you been around the planet yet? It’s really hot and sometimes it smells, but it’s fun to practice Force jumping from one rock to another over the lava rivers. We’ll have to go one day, it’ll be so much fun! When we leave the planet, I’ll take you to Coruscant. There are so many things to do there! We should practice together sometime. I-”  
  
“Mira,” Kylo interrupts her, knowing that she’s probably overwhelming Rey with her energy.  
  
Mira grumbles at him. But, Rey seems utterly delighted by Mira.  
  
“It’s nice to meet you too, Mira,” Rey says, her eyes lighting up at the prospect of making a new friend, “I haven’t been on the planet yet and I would love to train with you.”  
  
Mira beams and then introduces Silas and Aurelius. She then gives Rey a rundown of the other members of the Knights of Ren. When she’s finished telling Rey about the Knights, he turns to Silas and Aurelius to figure out why Hux was even here on Mustafar in the first place. Neither of them has a clue. He doesn’t like that. Hux had a reason for coming here, it had nothing to do with Rey. Or did it? He wants to know what Hux is planning. He trusts Hux about as far as he could throw him across the room with the Force.  
  
When he’s done talking about Hux, Mira turns to Rey and starts asking her about one of the Knights’ favorite pastimes when on Mustafar: jumping over the lava rivers. Rey seems excited about it and agrees to go with Mira sometime in the future.  
  
***  
  
He stands at the window in his office looking out over the lava rivers below where he can just barely see Mira and Rey jumping around. He’s happy that Rey has made a friend. She needs people in her life besides him. He doesn’t want her to feel isolated away from others. He hears a knock on the door and he tells whoever’s knocking to come in. Turning his head, he sees it’s Aurelius and Silas. He turns back to the window where he can see Rey and Mira again.  
  
“I like her,” Silas says when he gets to the window.  
  
He too stares down at the rivers of lava below the castle. Kylo smiles at his two oldest friends.  
  
“What’s not to like?” he says, “She’s amazing.”  
  
“So, what is the plan Kylo?” Aurelius asks, always the serious, pragmatic one, “You know you can’t keep her hidden here forever. The incident with Hux yesterday is proof of that.”  
  
Kylo sighs and runs his hands through his hair, “I don’t have one. I’m just hoping I can train her enough before Snoke comes knocking. Then, I’ll deal with him.”  
  
“But how?” Silas chimes in, “How are you going to keep him from finding out? I know Hux hasn’t done anything yet. It’s only a matter of time. Snoke has eyes and ears everywhere!”  
  
“I don’t know!” Kylo almost shouts, “I just know that I will do whatever it takes to keep her safe! The endgame is rebuilding and reinstituting the Empire, but none of that matters to me if something happens and Rey cannot stand at my side as I do it! I feel so lost! Snoke said I had never faced such a task as killing my father. But, I feel like this is a harder decision to make. It’s not just my life anymore, it’s hers. She deserves to live freely. I will never let Snoke touch her. He _cannot_ have her!”  
  
“It’s a hard decision because you love her,” Silas says gently.  
  
Kylo can see Aurelius nod in his periphery.  
  
“You do love her, right?” Aurelius confirms.  
  
Kylo nods.  
  
“Have you told her?” Silas asks.  
  
Kylo takes a deep breath, “No, not in those words. I was going to yesterday right as Hux barged in the room. And then she asked me about what I almost said and I couldn’t do it. I don’t know how to love somebody! How could I tell her something like that if I’m not even sure what I’m feeling?”  
  
“There’s no right answer to that question.” Silas says, “I don’t even remember realizing I was in love with Mira. I just woke up one morning and I did.”  
  
“You need to tell her eventually, Kylo,” Aurelius says.  
  
Kylo nods and refocuses his attention to the lava rivers. He can no longer see Rey and Mira but he trusts that they are alright. Silas and Aurelius leave the room, obviously sensing that he needs a moment alone to think about everything. He sighs and walks out of his office to go to the library. He settles down on his favorite couch and falls asleep.  
  
He dreams of Rey. Specifically, he dreams of kissing Rey. As he starts to wake up from his dream, he feels pressure on his chest and something soft brushing his cheek. He opens his eyes and sees his beautiful Rey. _I must be dreaming still_, he thinks. He leans forward to give Dream Rey another soft kiss. When he pulls back, he is feeling more lucid. That’s when he realizes that he was _not_ dreaming and that he actually kissed Rey. Horror spreads throughout his body and he pushes Rey off his lap as fast as he can without hurting her. He feels like such a nerfherder!  
  
“Rey, I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I was asleep and I was dreaming-” he apologizes, hoping that he didn’t just ruin everything they had built.  
  
He is surprised when she pulls his face back to hers and kisses him again. It feels like coming home, like benediction. Her lips are soft against his and her hands run through his hair and set all of his nerves on fire. They kiss for what feels like hours before talking about Snoke.  
  
When he crawls in his bed, he feels like he’s walking on air. He feels invincible.  
  
***  
  
Kylo still feels invincible. He feels better than he ever had as a kid, even on those fun days where his dad took him on adventures across the galaxy or those times his mom got out of the Senate early and they would go window shop and walk through museums together. Sure, the front of his pants feels very sticky and uncomfortable right now. But it doesn’t diminish the high he got from being with Rey. He can’t believe that she wants him the way he wants her.  
  
The only downside is his impending return to Snoke’s side. He’s terrified, more so than he was when he first started hearing those dark whispers. He doesn’t want to leave Rey all by herself here. What if something happens and he can’t get to her in time? He knows she is probably thinking the same thing right now and is probably more scared about him leaving than he is. He was peacefully laying on his couch, reading the same text about the Clone Wars when he felt a tremor through the Force and Snoke’s voice rumbling in his head. He was to depart Mustafar immediately and return to the Supremacy with the Knights.  
  
Kylo sits down on his bed after changing his clothes and washing up. He checks his comm and sees a message from Jex saying they are all packed up. He sends a message back saying they leave at first light. He doesn’t care if Snoke gets angry about that, he’ll make up an excuse for why they couldn’t leave. He knows he won’t get a minute of sleep tonight. He’s too anxious about what happens when they rejoin Snoke. How is he going to keep Rey hidden when Snoke likes to read his mind? He shuffles around on the bed, reaching for his datapad. He powers it on and goes back to the long text about the Clone Wars. He reads until his chrono beeps that it’s morning.  
  
He gets out of bed and puts his clothes on. He goes about his room packing up his belongings. There are, of course, many things that remain on Mustafar. His calligraphy set never travels with him. He knows that Snoke would make some derisive comment about it and find a way to destroy it. He sits down at the small desk in his room and starts to write a letter to Rey for her to read after he has left. She needs to know how he feels about her. If he can’t tell her directly, he can write it for her. When he is satisfied with it, he calls one of the protocol droids that are at the castle and instructs them to leave it in her room when they are at the landing platform.  
  
He leaves his room and goes down to the front hall where the other Knights are dropping off their own luggage. He sets his down in a pile and watches as droids move the bags to his shuttle. They all turn to go back to the dining room to eat before they really need to leave. They sit in silence for a minute before Mira speaks up.  
  
“Does Rey know?”  
  
“Yes, I told her last night.”  
  
“Hmm,” Mira idly plays with a piece of her long red hair, “And? Do you have a plan? For what’s going to happen, do you have any idea how to pull yourself out of this without dying?”  
  
“Nope,” Kylo tries to sound enthusiastic, but he knows they all see through him.  
  
There’s a noise from the hallway and they fall silent as Rey comes into the room. She sits next to him at the table. It’s a brief moment before Silas is standing up and saying they should leave now. Rey looks stricken and he reaches out to put his hand on her leg. They walk to the landing platform together. Rey begs him to come back to her and he grabs her to hold her tight to his chest. Too soon, he is walking up the ramp and holding Rey’s gaze until the ramp shuts in front of him. He feels raw grief erupt from the bond and they fly off the planet. He only hopes that Rey stays safe. As they make the first of a series of hyperspace jumps, his comm beeps with a message from Rey. She got his message and will be waiting for him until he can return for her.  
  
***  
  
Arriving back on the _Supremacy_ is surreal. He’s not really sure what he was expecting. An officer stands off to the side holding a datapad. She looks nervous and jittery as she steps forward when he and the Knights get to the bottom of the ship’s ramp.  
  
“S-Sir. You have a strategy meeting in a half-hour. General Hux wants to discuss the Mid Rim.”  
  
Kylo just nods and stalks past her, the others following in his wake. He’s surprised. He would’ve thought Snoke would send for him as soon as he arrived with the fleet. He walks through the ship to his room aboard the _Supremacy_. It’s smaller than his quarters on Mustafar and has far fewer personal possessions. Directing the droid carrying his things to just dump everything on the bed, he sits down in one of the armchairs. His comm chirps with a message. It’s from Aurelius asking if they can meet before Hux’s strategy meeting. He tells Aurelius to come to his room. Ten minutes later the door alarm rings and Aurelius is allowed inside.  
  
“Why do you think we’ve been summoned?”  
  
Kylo shrugs, “I don’t know. But I don’t like it, this waiting. I know he’s going to want an audience with me. I just can’t predict when it will happen.”  
  
“I know what you mean. Why do you think Hux wants to discuss the Mid Rim?”  
  
“Probably to start making plans to conquer it. Snoke wants the galaxy.”  
  
“Hmm,” Aurelius says, nodding.  
  
“I better get going to the meeting. I don’t really feel like listening to Hux speak more than I have to and if I’m late, he’ll spend more time talking.”  
  
Aurelius laughs and then they both get up and walk out the doors. They each go their own way, Aurelius, back to his quarters and Kylo to the elevator that will take him to the floor filled with conference rooms. When he exits the elevator, he sees other officers walking into a room and follows after them. Hux is at the front of the room looking smug, as always. Kylo sits down in one of the chairs near the head of the table. He senses the tension in the room rise as he takes his seat.  
  
“How was your vacation, Ren?” Hux goads him, knowing all too well it wasn’t a vacation.  
  
He doesn’t answer but instead sneers at Hux, “_General_.”  
  
Hux turns to the rest of those seated at the long table and starts his speech.  
  
“The time has come. Supreme Leader Snoke has given me the honor of overseeing the First Order’s push to the Core. The first step is to conquer the Mid Rim. Many Outer Rim systems have broken under our merciless attacks and have bowed to the might of the First Order! We will crush the other systems in due time but it is time for the Mid Rim planets who did not side with us to be crushed as well.”  
  
Kylo tries to tune out most of Hux’s speech, it’s nothing truly of substance and more of Hux’s desire for power.  
  
“The first step to our plan has already begun. We have identified many planets that would be ripe for conquest. In the coming days and weeks, our stormtroopers will be deployed all over the region. The Knights of Ren, on the order of Supreme Leader Snoke, have all been recalled to the fleet and will be sent to aid the divisions.”  
  
Kylo looks up at that, “_What_?”  
  
“Yes, Ren,” Hux’s face glows with almost glee, “The Supreme Leader thinks it best that the galaxy fears us. And who better to lead the charge in the Mid Rim than the Knights of Ren?”  
  
Kylo wants to wipe that stupid expression off Hux’s face. The rest of the meeting drags, with Hux discussing logistics with the other officers. When it’s finally over, Kylo bolts from his seat to go find the Knights. Finding Aurelius and Silas in the small common area that they eat their meals in, Kylo storms in. He tells them about what Hux said at the meeting. That they were to start the push into the Mid Rim and aid the stormtroopers and other various military apparatuses in their objective. Aurelius and Silas look surprised, like him, they weren't aware that Snoke was planning their galactic takeover so soon after the destruction of Starkiller Base.  
  
“Where do you think they’ll send us first? I spoke to Freya, she and Jaspar have been moving throughout the Mid Rim evaluating different planets,” Silas says when Kylo has stopped talking.  
  
Kylo shrugs, “Malastare, Ord Mantell, Naboo, Kashyyk, you know planets and systems that are notable within the region for culture or have resources. Snoke will want to incorporate systems that were part of the New Republic and make an example out of them. If powerful systems fall to us, other smaller, poorer systems will follow them. If only to protect the lives of their people.”  
  
He talks with the Knights for a few hours before heading back to his own room to go to sleep. He reads a couple of messages he got from Rey while he was in his meeting and replies back to her. When he finally falls asleep that night, he dreams about Rey.  



	9. Deployment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The campaign for the Mid Rim begins and then Kylo gets an unexpected surprise... (Kylo POV)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Here's chapter 9! Chapter 10 should be up in two weeks or so. Thank you to everyone who's read, sent kudos, or commented so far!

He’s been in strategy meetings all week. It’s exhausting. He’s so sick of listening to Hux speak. Every day, it’s the same spiel. “The First Order will crush the systems that bowed to the Republic!” and “The First Order is the supreme might in the galaxy!” There’s never anything new and Kylo isn’t really sure why his presence is required at them. He would much rather be training or flying back to Mustafar and curling up in bed with Rey. He misses her laugh and the way she feels in his arms. The Knights have all been reunited, Snoke called everyone back to his side. It’s been years since he’s even seen some of his Knights in person. Snoke didn’t want them getting too friendly with each other, it’s easier to control the volatile group of Force warriors in the First Order if there’s no real sense of camaraderie between them all. After all, their loyalty should be to Snoke alone and Snoke would never take his chances by having them stationed together at all times. 

Kylo rolls over in his bed, unable to get comfortable. After the first night back with the fleet when he dreamed of Rey and him curled together in their library nook, the nightmares returned. Awful images of Skywalker standing over him in the dead of night, the torture that he received from Snoke’s hands, and all the ones where he is back on that bridge with his lightsaber in his father’s chest. But now, there’s a new one. Rey, in the blood-red throne room, kneeling in front of him and begging for her life as Snoke shocks her over and over again with lightning. Snoke looks up from Rey on the ground and stares at him, urging him to  _ do it, fulfill your destiny _ . And he does. He plunges his lightsaber through her chest too. And every time, he wakes up screaming after she falls to the ground, her now unseeing eyes filled with tears.

He doesn’t know what to do. Depriving himself of sleep did no good. He tried that after two nights of waking up twisted in his blankets in the middle of the night with sweat pouring over every inch of his body. He stayed awake for four days. But then yesterday, he just started hallucinating and Aurelius and Silas were forced to drag him back to his quarters when he wouldn’t stop screaming at the wall thinking it was Rey being hurt. He feels like he was hit head-on by a speeder. 

Suddenly, he feels a sharp pain in his head, and Snoke’s voice echoing in his ears. 

_ Come to me, Kylo Ren. _

He wants to cry. He went the whole week without being summoned by Snoke. Sighing, he gets out of bed and pulls his clothes on. He walks through the ship to the lift that will take him to Snoke’s throne room. The blood-red walls make him feel even sicker as he remembers the way Rey had looked in his dream sprawled out on the floor with a smoking hole in her chest from his lightsaber. Slowly, he falls to one knee before Snoke, bowing his head so he doesn’t have to look at him. 

“Kylo Ren…” Snoke’s creaky voice echoes through the room in the same way it echoed in his head, “Did you enjoy the time spent at your grandfather’s castle? Have you learned your lesson?”

Kylo knows that those questions are just rhetorical and not really meant to be answered. Snoke never gets answers by asking questions. Kylo waits for the slimy feeling in his head to come, the feeling that always accompanies Snoke digging through his memories. He’s careful to hide Rey far away in the furthest, smallest, and darkest corner in his mind. 

He starts to feel it then, creeping in at the edges. He’s a little surprised. Snoke usually barreled straight into his mind, now it feels like he’s on the hunt for something. The slimy feeling slowly spreads throughout, lingering on each thought and memory that he had while on Mustafar. 

“Still feeling guilt, I see. Guilt is for the weak, I thought you were better than this…” Snoke says out loud, “And what is this, you thought a lot about the scavenger, the one who cut up your face. You should hate her, but you don’t. Why is that, I wonder?”

Kylo clenches his teeth to keep from screaming out loud. He can feel Snoke reaching into the corners, trying to find what lies hidden behind shields. Then, in contrast to how slowly he crept into his mind, Snoke pulls abruptly out of his mind. Kylo is breathing hard, preparing for Snoke to raise his hands and deliver a torrent of lethal lightning. Kylo is terrified that Snoke saw Rey, saw that they’re together. That he will be dead in the next five seconds and that Rey will soon be following him. 

“I’m sending you to Malastare. You and the Knights will leave tomorrow with a few divisions of stormtroopers to conquer the planet.”

Kylo looks up from the floor at that. He thought for sure that Snoke would try breaking down the shields. Maybe this is a test. Maybe Snoke is waiting for him to make a mistake. But, Snoke pays him no mind and continues speaking.

“Malastare not only has a major export in their fuel, but it was an Imperial stronghold even after the Empire fell. When you have succeeded in the conquest of Malastare, you will continue around the region. I will call you back when it is time to move to the Core and Expansion Regions. I expect you to devote yourself to moving forward quickly. I do not want to wait longer than I have to. Soon, Coruscant will be in reach and I will have the galaxy at my feet. A new age is coming Kylo Ren, and you are going to make it for me.”

Kylo recognizes the dismissal and almost runs from the room and into the lift. He wants to talk to the other Knights as soon as possible. He finds them lounging in their common room. Aurelius, Silas, Mira, and Jex look up from the datapads they are each reading when he enters the room. The other Knights only look up once he’s started to speak.

“We ship out tomorrow for Malastare. The Supreme Leader wants the Mid Rim to be firmly in our grasp before we make a move for the Core and he wants it done quickly.” He turns to address Freya and Jaspar who are sitting together on a small couch, “You two have been around the Mid Rim, what do we need to know that hasn’t already been mentioned?”

Freya looks at Jaspar before turning her head back to face him, “Many planets are, as Hux has said, appropriate for conquest and should be an easy win. The problem is, many of the people enjoyed the benefits provided by the New Republic. Many systems suffered under Imperial rule and are not keen to be subjugated once more, especially by the First Order which rose from the Imperial Remnant in the Unknown Regions.”

Kylo nods, he knows all of this already. But, he appreciates Freya’s no-nonsense approach to the dynamics in the Mid Rim. The Outer Rim was easy because there was already a culture of lawlessness there. Many of the systems either jumped at the chance at real stability or were so unprepared to go up against the First Order’s military.

He and the Knights talk about strategy for a couple more hours. Kylo knows that each of his Knights has their own specialties and that Snoke picked each of them for what advantage they could bring him. He, Silas, Aurelius, Mira, and Jex have the advantage of being old companions. They knew how each other fought and worked extremely well as a team. Aurelius in particular was a very skilled warrior. While Kylo often relied on brute force and fought tooth and nail like a wild animal, Aurelius was thoughtful and seemed to know what his enemy would do before they did it. Tiberius and Dax were good at reconnaissance, they could stay in the shadows and get in and out of secure facilities without being caught. Asha was very skilled at using the Force. She wasn’t a great warrior like the others, but she could conjure visions in the Force that confused her enemies and disoriented them long enough for them to be taken care of. Clea and Aurora were weapons masters, they seemed to be able to wield any weapon and make it work for them as if they had trained with that weapon for years. Freya was a tactician, she was no great warrior like the others but could often see how the enemy had drawn their lines and how to get around them. Jaspar was the exact opposite, rash and impulsive like Kylo, he was the muscle behind the operation. His strength came in handy when the Knights were in a jam.

Kylo leaves the meeting with the Knights feeling more assured about their mission. But, he can’t shake the feeling that something bad is coming for him. He knows that Snoke saw he was hiding things. Snoke could always find his shields. He always knew when Kylo was hiding something from him. Kylo sits down on the edge of his bed and puts his head in his hands. Groaning, his thoughts turn to Rey. He knows it will take a while to push through the Mid Rim. He hasn’t told her yet, he wanted to tell her over their bond so he could hold her in his arms while he told her she would be alone for the foreseeable future. She messages him every day about what she’s done. It’s a relief to hear from her and know that it wasn’t just some elaborate dream he made up. 

He’s still sitting on his bed with his head in his hands when he feels the bond with Rey snap into place. He looks up and into her beautiful hazel eyes. He missed her so much it hurts.

“Rey,” he tells her, letting her Force signature wash over him, “I’ve missed you so much.”

She stands from where it looked like she was sitting across the room and walks to his side. She grabs his hand and holds it tight within both of hers. Her eyes scan his face and he can tell that she knows something is bothering him.

“What’s wrong?”

He takes a deep breath before explaining everything to her, “Snoke is sending us on a mission. He wants to start moving coreward, we have the Outer Rim for the most part. The Knights and I are to lead divisions through the Mid-Rim, getting planets to our side. I don’t know how long it will be before I can come back to Mustafar. I can’t let him think anything is wrong. I think he may suspect that I’m hiding something, he didn’t push too hard when he came across my mental shields.”

He watches her eyes grow wider as he talks and he feels the spike of terror in the Force around them both. Wanting to reassure her, he slides his hands delicately around her jaw. Her eyes meet his.

“Shh, my love, I wouldn’t let him harm you.”

It’s the first time he’s said that to her out loud. But, she is. She is his love, he loves her so much and he can’t bear the thought of Snoke getting his disgusting hands on her. 

“Stay, stay with me tonight. I’m so tired of being alone.”

He presses light kisses to the top of her head and it looks as though she is walking to her room. They lay down on their respective beds. She curls up beside him and he can almost smell the detergent the droids on Mustafar use on their laundry. He hugs her to him, wanting to keep her as safe as he can. He watches as she falls asleep and then waits until the bond closes before he himself falls asleep alone in his room.

***

Kylo curses as he swipes his lightsaber in front of his face, deflecting the blaster bolt back to the person who shot at him. He hears the Knights following behind him and the sound of stormtroopers shooting at the people ahead of them. It’s been two weeks since they set up their compound on Malastare. The people proved to be more resistant than Hux had planned. In the years since Grand General Kenner Loring had taken control of Malastare, people had come to despise the First Order. No doubt because Loring was opposed to Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax and the Imperial Remnant that became the First Order. 

The Knights and Kylo had been separated from the rest of the divisions and were trying to make their way back to the small base that the First Order had built when they chose their landing spot on top of a rocky cliff. They only had a small group of stormtroopers with them and they kept stumbling upon groups of Malastarians which delayed their trek through the forests. Kylo is angry. Hux said this would be cut and dry. He should’ve known to look beyond Hux’s self-aggrandizing nature. Hux thought himself to be more important than he actually was. Kylo was stupid to believe what Hux said. He and the Knights make their way through the thick forest, having dispatched with the group of people shooting at them. 

They stop to regroup and take stock of their numbers. Jaspar and Tiberius are almost carrying Silas, who took a blaster bolt to the leg. They set him on the ground gently and he groans as Mira wraps it in a fresh bandage and applies bacta. Of the thirty stormtroopers that they had taken with them when they left the base, they had ten left. Kylo looks around as he takes in a deep breath, still feeling the adrenaline running through his veins. He doesn’t know how much daylight they still have left but decides to stay in this spot for the night so everyone can rest. He motions for one of the surviving stormtrooper division leaders to set up camp for the night. Then he kneels at Silas’ side and checks in with Mira about his leg.

“How’s it look?”

Mira looks up from where she was putting the med-kit away, her face pale and her hands a little shaky, “It’s bad, Kylo. Went through to the bone. I managed to get the bleeding under control but I can’t do anything to protect against infection. I’ve got just enough bacta for one more bandage change, which isn’t going to do much good. I’m going to need to change the bandage in the morning, but then that means we need to be back to the base fast. Like, before mid-day.”

“S’-fine,” Silas says, weakly. “I’m okay. Can barely feel it, honestly.”

Mira shakes her head and laughs softly. She reaches out and smooths Silas’ dark hair back from his sweaty face. Kylo stands back up and makes his way over to Aurelius. 

Speaking low so the others don’t hear him he says, “We gotta get back to the base. I think Silas might lose the leg if we don’t. I could kill Hux right now.”

Aurelius nods, “I can send Tiberius and Dax ahead, give us some idea of what’s out there and how far we have to go before we get to the base.”

Kylo nods and tells Aurelius to send them out. He looks at the group of people around him and doesn’t know what to do. The base shouldn’t be too far but with Silas’ leg the way it is, he just doesn’t know. He calls out for everyone to get some sleep, they leave at first light.

Morning dawns and the group of Knights and stormtroopers start heading west. Tiberius and Dax had scouted ahead and told them it was all clear for a couple miles. They walk for four hours before they see the First Order base camp on the horizon. When they are allowed inside, Silas is rushed to the medbay with Mira following closely behind. Kylo heads to the command tent, he needs to debrief and give Hux a piece of his mind. Once the holo was patched through, Kylo doesn’t wait for Hux to open his stupid mouth before laying into him.

“What the hell was that? You send us off on some fool’s errand to get killed? You said this was going to be simple, that there would be no resistance from the people! What makes you think you deserve your place in command of the Mid Rim conquest?”

Hux turns a little pale while Kylo yells at him before his face starts getting red with anger.

“Perhaps it is you who couldn’t follow orders! My strategy was perfect, the Supreme Leader himself congratulated me on it!”

“You’re lucky, Hux,” Kylo growls, “You’re lucky that I’m not there and that you’re not here. Because I would strangle you to death and there is nothing that could stop me.”

Hux cuts the call and Kylo steps back from the little table. He stalks from the command tent to the tent that he shares with Aurelius. Aurelius is already sitting on his bunk, taking off his armor, and stacking it on the floor. Kylo sits down across from him and relays the conversation he had with Hux to him.

“You need to be careful with him, Kylo.” Aurelius looks up from where he was taking off his boots. “Hux is not the kind of man to accept defeat. You and I both know that the rumors are true, Hux really did have his father killed. What do you think he could do to you if he really wanted to hurt you?”

Kylo sighs, knowing that Aurelius is right. “He’d go after Rey. And this would be the perfect time to do it, now that we are systems away and not able to watch his every move. I hate to admit it but Hux is extremely smart. He knows how to play the game.”

Aurelius nods and then gets ready to take a short nap before they have to go out again. Kylo walks out of the tent and walks around the small camp to the medbay. Silas is submerged in a bacta tank with Mira sitting right beside it, curled up in a small chair. Kylo places his hand on her shoulder and she turns her head to look at him. Smiling softly, she reaches up and covers his hand with hers. They both stay like that for several hours until the med droid announces that Silas can be removed from the bacta. They both breathe out in relief when the droid says there should be no lasting damage and that they had gotten him to the camp just in time. Silas is put on a bed and wheeled to a private corner. Mira goes to sit next to his bed while Kylo remains standing, a silent vigil.

***

It’s been a month since he left Mustafar. They had left Malastare and traveled throughout the Mid Rim, going from planet to planet. They landed on Ord Mantell earlier in the day to start negotiations. Kylo lays on his bunk, thinking of Rey while Aurelius snores away.

_ Kylo Ren _

Snoke’s voice echoes in his head. He sits up on his bunk and feels a cold sweat erupt over his entire body.

_ We must rethink our strategy, come to my ship at once, and bring the Knights _ .

Kylo swings his feet out from under the covers and leans over to nudge Aurelius awake. Aurelius groans as he sits up.

“Wha’s it?” Aurelius says with a yawn.

“Snoke called out to me just now. He wants us back on his ship. We’re to leave right now.”

Clarity dawns on Aurelius’ face and they both set to packing their stuff up and then go wake the others. They all make their way through camp to Kylo’s command shuttle. The shuttle ride to the  _ Supremacy _ is quick. When the shuttle docks and the ramp is lowered, he sees Hux standing in the hangar waiting for them. 

“Good, right on time. Supreme Leader Snoke wants to see you right away.”

Hux leads them all through the ship to the lift. Kylo has no idea what’s going on but the Force is ringing in his ears like a warning bell. Reaching out with the Force, Kylo can feel excitement rolling off Hux. Kylo is instantly on edge as the lift doors slide open and he and the Knights stride into the throne room. Snoke, like always, is seated on the throne wearing that gaudy gold bathrobe he is so fond of. 

“Kylo Ren. Again you have managed to disappoint me. I thought you had learned your lesson after being sent away for so many months to live in your grandfather’s castle.”

“The Mid Rim is in our grasp. We are almost ready to push into the Core. I have not forgotten your teachings.”

Snoke wheezes out a dry laugh, “No?”

Snoke stands from his throne and walks over to the Knights kneeling on the floor. When he is right in front of Kylo, he lets loose a torrent of lightning. Kylo is slammed backward onto the floor, his body shaking uncontrollably. Snoke stands up straighter, his face contorted with fury.

“You disappoint me greatly. I brought you up from nothing. You were nothing before me. A weak, insignificant little boy deceived by those who share your blood. I made you strong, I gave you a place of power. You were meant to be the heir of Darth Vader! And this is how you repay me? By betraying me for something as unimportant as a  _ girl _ !”

Kylo’s heart skips a beat and he sits up on the floor staring at Snoke with fire burning in his eyes. Snoke regards him for a moment and then raises a finger, pointing at Hux. Hux nods and walks back to the lift. He’s gone for only a moment before he returns to the room. Two stormtroopers follow behind him carrying something between them. Dread spreads throughout his body as Rey is dropped at Snoke’s feet, unconscious.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk…” Snoke shakes his head as he uses the Force to suspend Rey in the air in front of him. “Did you really think I wouldn’t find out? I can see every thought inside your head.”

Kylo snarls and moves forward, wanting to get Rey away from Snoke. Before he can even get to his feet, Hux pulls him back down to the ground. He needs to think quickly.

“You’re right. I’ve been hiding her. She came to me shortly after I arrived on Mustafar. Told me that Skywalker refused to teach her, that she wanted more from the Force. I brought her to Mustafar and trained her. When I was called back to your side, I left her there. She was not ready for battle yet so I did not think to inform you.” Kylo tries to remember all of the tricks his father taught him when they got in tight spots and had to gamble their way out. 

“Why? Why did it not occur to you that an occasion as momentous as this deserved my knowledge? The scavenger who defeated you in battle, wanting to join us. And she knows where Skywalker is.”

“You were far more concerned with the Mid Rim.” Kylo is desperate, he knows Snoke doesn’t believe a word he’s been saying. He needs to think of something else. “Hux knew she was with me. He arrived on Mustafar a month or so into her stay and found us in the dining hall.”

Snoke, however, doesn’t look surprised, “I know. He was the one who brought me the information and the one who retrieved the girl for us. The question is, what do I do with her, and you?”

“I still believe what I told you on Starkiller Base. She is strong in the Force. I can turn her to the Dark Side, I’ve already started. She trusts me, trusts that I have her best interests at heart. That I wouldn’t hurt her. I can use that to our advantage. She would be a worthy addition to your collection. She has knowledge of the Resistance that could help us defeat them.”

Snoke looks thoughtful for a moment and Kylo wishes he knew what Snoke is thinking. He just needs to get Rey out of here. 

“Let’s see what she thinks, shall we?”

Snoke twitches his fingers and Rey wakes with a jump.

“Kylo! Wha-” she turns her head to look around the room. 

“Young Rey, welcome,” Snoke says with a smile.

“Where am I? What’s happened?”

She turns her head, frantically looking around the room. When her eyes land on him, she calls out his name. Kylo pushes against Hux’s hold, trying to stand up, to do something more than kneel at Snoke’s feet while he’s got Rey in his grasp. But, it’s no use. The feeling of the lightning lingers and his body aches, his muscles refusing to move the way he wants them to.

“My  _ apprentice _ ,” Snoke spits out, “believes that you can be turned, that you can be useful to me. But, I am not convinced. After all, how useful can a scavenger be to me? I have no need for trash pickers and sand rats.”

Snoke turns and heads back to his throne, pulling Rey along with him. Kylo and the other Knights remain kneeling on the floor. Kylo feels sick, it’s like his nightmares are coming true. Snoke has Rey and he is powerless to stop it. 

“You wish to join our ranks, young Rey? You’ll need to prove yourself to me. Let’s see what my apprentice has taught you.”

Snoke reaches his hand out and Kylo knows that he’s invading her mind. He can feel pain through the bond. Delving into the locked corner of his mind where he keeps Rey, he pushes happy memories through their connection, hoping that the Force will protect their bond from Snoke’s onslaught.

Snoke closes his eyes, seeing Rey’s mind. 

“What a lonely life you have lived. Thrown away by your parents, sold for drinking money. Forced to toil day after day. Oh, how sweet. You even counted the days since they left you and kept yourself recognizable for when they came back. Silly girl, you knew deep down you would be alone forever. They didn’t want you. Why would they? Such a small little thing, an extra mouth to feed. How worthless.”

Kylo sees Rey shake her head and can feel her pain in his own head. He pushes words and feelings into her mind.  _ Not worthless,  _ never _ worthless, I want you, I will always want you, don’t listen to him _ . He pushes every feeling he has ever had for her into their bond, he sends her his love. Finally, Snoke opens his eyes and drops his hand from its position in front of Rey’s face.

“My apprentice was right. I see a darkness in you, young Rey. A hunger for belonging and safety. You will find that on the Dark Side of the Force. You can have anything you ever want on the Dark Side. But first, a test. I will give you a chance to prove yourself. You will join the Knights of Ren in the campaign for the Mid Rim. If you can prove to me that you have truly abandoned the Light, I will let Kylo Ren continue to train you. If you can’t, you will die,” Snoke says to Rey and then looks over to him, “Do not disappoint me again or you will find that my patience has run out.”

Snoke releases his hold on Rey and she scrambles back to where the Knights are kneeling. Hux releases Kylo and allows him to stand. The Knights, Kylo, and Rey leave the throne room behind and make their way back to the hangar where they left their shuttle. They make the trip back to Ord Mantell and the camp there. 

Rey follows Kylo to his tent and sits down on his bunk curling up as small as possible. Kylo sits next to her and wraps his arms around her.

“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I should have known better, I never should have allowed him to get his hands on you. I failed you, Rey,” he whispers into her hair.

Rey turns and lays down, pulling him so he can lay next to her. She wraps her arms around him and clings to him like she’s afraid he’ll disappear if she doesn’t. 

“You didn’t fail me. I’m okay, I’m here. I missed you so much.”

Kylo presses kisses to her hair, forehead, and cheeks before pressing a deeper one to her lips. Gods, it’s been forever since he felt her in his arms like this. 

“I missed you too, sweetheart. More than you could ever know. And I promise you, Snoke will pay for what he did to you today. I swear to you, I will kill him for that.”

Rey smooths a hand down his jaw, rubbing over the scar that she left on his face, “Shh, I know. We’ll get him, I trust you.”

Kylo looks down a bit into her eyes and he can see the fire burning within. They’ll get Snoke and then they’ll make the galaxy theirs.

“We’ll get him,” he echoes her. “I promise, my love.”

“Am I? Your love?”

Now it’s Kylo’s turn to run a hand over her cheek as he nods, “Yes, of course. Always. Rey, I’ve wanted to tell you this for so long. Silas and Aurelius told me to do it when we were on Mustafar. I was going to tell you the morning Hux barged in on us. But, then I got scared. That you wouldn’t feel the way I felt or that I would only cause you pain. But, I can’t hide it anymore. Rey, I love you. I don’t want to love anyone else but you for however long you will have me.”

Rey’s eyes fill with tears and he’s afraid that he said the wrong thing. But then she’s kissing him and wrapping her arms and legs around him, trying to get as close as humanly possible.

“I love you, too.”


End file.
